A Sense of Place : Carla van Laar
2nd – 31st March 2022
Inverloch Community Hub
16 A’Beckett St Inverloch
Open 7 days from 10am – 4pm
Handcrafted Tasmanian Oak frames by L-Mac Carpentry
For SALES enquiries contact Carla by clicking HERE
Artist’s Statement
I pay my respects to the Boon Wurrung People, on whose traditional lands this exhibition takes place. I honour them, their elders and ancestors. They have inhabited, cared for, gathered on and practiced Culture here on Country for millennia. This will always be their land, waterways and atmosphere.
Receiving a Welcome to walk freely around in this Country has provided me with a sense of belonging that, as a descendant of European settlers, I never expected to experience. For this I am deeply and eternally grateful.
Many of the artworks in this show were painted here in Boon Wurrung Country. Others were painted in different locations including Bidawal, Dja Dja Wurrung, Gadubanud, Gunaikurnai, Gunditjmara and Wurundjeri Country.
My painting practice is deeply connected to my sense of being in relationship with the living world that I inhabit and that sustains all life. When I am painting, I am participating in the act of creation that is the nature of the universe. In these ways, being in connected relationship with the environment, through the contemplative process of painting, is a life sustaining and spiritual practice.
I hope that some trace of the sense of each place, and the creative life energy of the universe, remains in every painting I make, and that the artworks transmit this energy to others as part of their ongoing purpose in life.
Branches on the Inlet
2022. Pastel, ink and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
60cm H x 120cm W
$2800
River Mouth Closes Over
2020. Pastel, ink and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Bidawal Country. Malacoota.
51cm Square
$780
Talking to the Gum Nuts
2021. Pastel, ink and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
51cm Square
$980
Home Time
2019. Pastel, ink and oil on timber particle board with exposed treated pine edge.
Unframed.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
76cm Square
$2200
The Dunes
2021. Pastel and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
51cm Square
$980
Surf Check
2019. Pastel, ink and oil on timber particle board with exposed treated pine edge.
Unframed.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
91cm H x 122 W
SOLD
Waving Trees
2021. Pastel, ink and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Wurundjeri Country. Healesville.
51cm Square
$780
In the Flow
2019. Pastel, ink, and oil on timber particle board with exposed treated pine edge.
Unframed.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
72cm H x 204 W
SOLD
Gum Leaves and Shadows
2021. Pastel and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
51cm Square
$980
The Giving Tree
2020. Pastel and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
51cm Square
$780
Regeneration
2022. Pastel, ink and acrylic on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Gunaikurnai Country. Mueller River.
102cm Square
$2200
Bend in the River
2021. Pastel, ink and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Gunditjmara Country. Glenelg River.
102cm Square
$2200
Fallen Gum Leaves
2022. Pastel, ink and acrylic on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
25cm H x 20cm W
$400
Flat Rocks
2021. Pastel, ink and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Inverloch.
66cm Square
$1200
Wild Dog Creek after Rain
2015. Oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Wild Dog Valley.
107cm H x 76cm W
$2980
Wild Dog Dam
2016. Pastel, ink and acrylic on cardboard.
Timber frame, behind glass.
Boon Wurrung Country. Wild Dog Valley.
89 H x 124cm W
$2980
View from Wombat Hill
2016. Pastel, ink and acrylic on canvas.
Unframed.
Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Wombat Hill.
121cm Square
$3880
Apollo Bay Hills
2016. Pastel, ink and acrylic on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Gadubanud Country. Apollo Bay.
46cm Square
$980
Wild Dog Valley
2015. Pastel and oil on canvas.
Hand crafted Victorian Ash frame.
Boon Wurrung Country. Wild Dog Valley.
121cm Square
$3980
About the Artist
Dr Carla van Laar
Artist | Art Therapist
Master of Creative Arts Therapy
Doctor of Therapeutic Arts Practice
PACFA Reg. Clinical and Accredited Supervisor – PACFA
Carla van Laar is a painter and Creative Arts Therapist from Australia. Born in Brisbane, Carla is first generation Australian on her Dutch grandparents side, and 7th generation through her maternal bloodline who were mostly English and came to Australia in the early colonisation of the 1800s. Her mother grew up in remote North Queensland and most of her extended family live up North. Carla lives and works in Boon Wurrung Country in Inverloch, South Eastern Victoria.
Carla has exhibited her artworks consistently since 1990, and her artworks are held in private collections as well as the collections of the National Australia Bank and RMIT University. She has over 30 years’ experience working with people and the arts for health and well-being in community organisations, justice, health and education contexts.
Carla’s first book “Bereaved Mother’s Heart” was published in 2007 and broke social taboos about maternal grief. From 2008-18 she established and ran an independent art therapy studio and gallery in Melbourne. Her Doctoral research “Seeing Her Stories” continues the mission to make women’s stories visible, through art.
Carla has lectured and supervised Art Therapy students at RMIT, MIECAT and currently the IKON Institute. In 2018 received an Artist Fellowship at RMIT’s creative research lab, “Creative Agency”. She insists on being part of a creative revolution in which art re-embodies lived experience, brings us to our senses, makes us aware of the interconnectedness of all life and is an agent of social change.
Carla painting in situ January 2022, Gunaikurnai Country, Mueller River, Croajingalong National Park.
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