Art2Muse

Ian Ginzberg and Sid Sledge have been going out over the last year trying to capture Eastern Suburbs beaches at night: Ian with a camera and Sid with a paintbrush. What the experience has brought out is what the two artists hoped for. When being out at night, sometimes very dark, sometimes a little dark, the photographer opens his shutter (for quite a long time) and hopes that enough light will fall into the lens; he may also quietly hope that some light effect like a night plane or a shooting star will pass before the lens’ patient eye.

Sid being a painter wonders if there will even be enough light to see the paint, but then he says, ‘sometimes only having a vague idea of the colour I am selecting can have surprising effects on what I am painting and helps me realise that chance is often a more certain guide in a painting, than knowing too much…’ Some of the paintings are completed en plein air, while others, especially the later ones, Sid admits to enjoying the spontaneity of starting the canvases at the beach and then taking them back to the studio to make sense of and elaborate them to completion.

Besides the obvious differences that the different media will produce, Ian is more interested in the idea of landscape and his sense lends the pictures a vast stillness and these stand in stark contrast to Sid’s imagery, which is predominantly figurative and of a more expressive mode. The sense that you get from seeing the work is how differently the same subject matter can be seen and responded to by the different artists. The artists have captured Tamarama; Coogee; Clovelly; Double Bay; Bronte; Maroubra and Bondi Beach.

Being born-and-bred in Bondi, I've spent most of my life on the coast. I have an attraction to nature, which is what I try to portray in the images I make. My passion is making landscape photographs that really draw you into the image. I usually compose the images with a strong foreground component, and with vibrant colours and even duo-tone black and whites, I try and capture the essence of the surroundings I am in at the time.

The upcoming exhibition 'Night-time with the Sea' with artist Sid Sledge, is a collaboration of my still images with his artistic talents. We go out at night to local eastern beaches and I photograph while he paints.

The Pearl Beach series of photos is an on-going project with a view to have an exhibition of the work.

NB: Photographs available in a range of sizes and framing on request