![]() ![]() His flamingo also got him into a movie, 2011’s “Gnomeo & Juliet,” distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It ended up on a gift card that is still sold today, she said. One was a version of the painting called “The Bookworm,” which he submitted to a contest at the Fitchburg Public Library. Painting took a back seat.īut when he retired, he got back into painting, sharing his work only with her. ![]() He worked for Union Products for 43 years and made over 600 items for them, she said. “He particularly enjoyed sculpting and painting,” she said. “Donald had nine years of formal art training,” Nancy Featherstone said, adding that he was “an extremely talented artist.” “He got a kick out of it he enjoyed it,” she said, referring to the recognition he received for his creation.įeatherstone, born in Worcester and raised in Berlin, studied art at the Worcester Art Museum. Nancy said she’d tell people – often in Don’s presence – that her husband was the one who created the popular lawn ornament.Īnd they’d say, “I never knew someone actually did that.” And it was something for which he’d become famous throughout the world.īut it was never something he’d brag about or bring up on his own. Her husband, who died Monday at the age of 79, was the creator of the pink lawn flamingo. You see, the flamingo wasn’t a random gift. The exhibition is on show from 14 September to November 3, 2019.“Donald was thrilled with his bronze flamingo,” she said. In 1996, the Gallery challenged the photographer to identify these locations and in 2019 we challenge the viewer to explore Toowoomba and surrounds in response to these works. ![]() One of the biggest challenges for Spowart in making these images was to replicate the painters’ viewpoints and, in some instances, even finding the locations proved problematic.įrom the time of the initial recording to now, almost 25 years later, these photographs indicate constants and change. The project compared and contrasted the direct recording of a site using photography with the painter’s vision of the same location. In 1996 photographer Doug Spowart assisted by Victoria Cooper undertook a project called New sight-Same sites which re-imaged Downs landscapes and other regional sites depicted in selected works from the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery Toowoomba City Collection. The Gallery wall sheet for the Same Sites Hindsights exhibition states: Now 23 years later the Gallery has re-presented the work for reconsideration by a new generation of art gallery visitors.ĭon Featherstone (L) Golden Tree (Corner of Kitchener and Herries Streets)1959 watercolour Spowart+Cooper (R) Corner of Kitchener and Herries Streets 1996 silver gelatin fibre print The 1996 the exhibition NEW SIGHTS – SAME SITES was opened at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery and installation of the selected artworks were paired with our photographic interpretation of the same scene. Called Type 55 the film gave a black and white print and also a negative that, after in-field processing could be printed in a conventional enlarger. I chose a 4×5 large format camera and a black and white film made by Polaroid. On occasion however we were only able to create a general locational view. Working with Victoria we travelled around the region to find the matching locations and met with some success finding the exact location. The artworks that were my source reference covered a range of approaches to the artist’s vision imbued with the appearance of the painting techniques that they employed. Other projects emerged including a commission from Di Baker, Director of the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery to locate the subject matter of artworks from the Toowoomba Gallery’s collection and to re-image the subject by photography. These projects were presented at the Araluen Art Gallery in Alice Springs in 1986 in the exhibition Tourists Facts, Acts, Rituals & Relics. ![]() In the mid 1980s I rephotographed tourist postcard scenes in outback Australia and reimaged tourist camera photos placing them in the context of a wider-angled view. Although I was informed by this seminal work as a record of social and historical change, in some of my work I also enjoyed questioning the notion of the original photographers as a kind of truth. Their approach to the reimaging of the photographs of the American west by William Henry Jackson, Timothy O’Sullivan and others in the 1860s was methodical and scientific. At this time I discovered the work by Mark Klett and others published in their 1984 book Second View: The Rephotographic Survey Project. I have always enjoyed the challenge to re-align the contemporary view with the past to see visual narratives of change either subtle or profound. SAME SITES HINDSIGHT – Toowoomba Regional Art Galleryįor me rephotography is a way of re-viewing place and change through a comparative documentation using the perspectives of earlier photographers. Doug in the exhibition space … PHOTO: Victoria Cooper ![]()
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