Paul Maher 

closed Good Friday and Easter Sunday

OPENING/MEET THE ARTIST Saturday 29 March, 11am – 5pm ALL WELCOME

MEET THE ARTIST Saturday 12 April, 11am – 2pm and ARTIST TALK 1pm

The paintings in this exhibition inhabit the edges between spaces; the urban and the untamed, the empty and the compact. Looseness and lack of resolution in the painted surface blur the lines between complex architectural forms and tangled bushland or modestly built structures and the water’s edge. These paintings tell us something about ourselves through the traces people leave behind.

‘I am drawn to places where people manipulate their urban environment, where they express themselves, often without intention.’

These recent works capture the irony of a changing city where layers are paired back to accidentally give rebirth to a long hidden view, or where modern construction engulfs 20th century workmanship. 

REVIEW written by Madeleine K. Snow

COASTAL DWELLING

The works of Paul Maher a like a gentle balm.  The imagery conjures nostalgia and reminiscence of beach holidays and boat trips. Vantage points from his life on the coast they offer the viewer a window into a space of beauty, order, calm and solace.

Maher is an expert painter having worked since the 1980s, there is a controlled use of colour and succinct compositions with seemingly easy and expressive mark making.  Like a practiced composer Maher brings his agile brush, fresh bright light rich surfaces and soothing colour palettes to each canvas.

Across his works Maher shifts and pivots in response to the subject matter. The swell in the work Shelter is beginning to pick up amidst a scene of calm and order the imminently changing energy of the ocean is captured in the expressive brushstrokes. His title is both literal, the work depicts beach shelters, and ambiguous, the ocean a swathe of blue through the lower third of the work punctuates the composition threatening in its unknowable energy.

In the work Tinny and Trailer the tinny is perched expectantly the absent owner out of view. Is it abandoned, forgotten or is seafaring again just in the wind? A dinghy is upended in Frangipani Dinghy repurposed as a garden shrine to the emblematic Summer floral beauty of that freshly scented perky white and yellow bloom. His open-ended narratives are expansive and present opportunities for contemplation.

Maher’s artworks provide moments of insight and subtlety. In their solitude they exist in a space of quiet meditation. From homes nestled in trees, views to the sea, cliff edges, beaches, and water glimpses the images in Coastal Dwelling attests to the moments of reverence to be found in being in proximity to the ocean. Not surprising that more than 85% of Australians choose to dwell less than 50km from the coast.

Coastal Dwelling is an exhibition of new work by Paul Maher at Straitjacket in Newcastle running until 20 April 2025.

Q & A

How do you choose your subject matter?
Fleeting fragments of the landscape flash past my eye and sometimes an image is locked in my memory; I return to the place and draw what I see. I have sketch books full of these drawings. I flick through these pages and an image will resonate with me, it could be a recent drawing or from a while ago.  If it holds my imagination, I’ll take it to the next stage and plan a painting. Other times, I see a part of the landscape and impulsively and go back and draw and paint it straight away. An example of this is the “Amateur yacht club” painting in this exhibition.

What techniques do you use? 
I paint on unstretched canvas on a wall in the studio. Working in the alla prima technique, I start early in the morning and go all day until the afternoon when I stop and start to think about making dinner. I build up the surface quickly and play with the composition by drawing with paint. I respond to the colours in front of me not knowing if the colour on the palette is right until I put it on the canvas. This helps with the push and pull of space in the painting.

Who are your influences? 
I really like the mood Noel McKenna brings to his work. I like the line and gesture of Max Beckman. I would have to say the work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye is unmatched in the way it helps us understand what painting means for humans is in our time. Some of the young Australian painters at the moment really knock me out too, like Laura Jones and Sally Anderson. There are many artists and painters that I appreciate from all fields of art.