Artwork at Darwin Central Hotel
The Darwin Central Hotel features a wide variety of artworks with each floor and area showcasing different styles and artists. Take a tour and stop at every floor to view the individual pieces featured throughout the property. Each Guest room features black and white photographs of Darwin further complementing the selection of pieces.
The following is a brief background on some of the artists and artwork featured throughout the property:
Geoff Todd
Geoff Todd was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1950. Geoff Todd studied in Victoria and has a Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts, a Diploma in Fine Arts and a Diploma in Technical Teaching.
After teaching art for 13 years, in 1984, Geoff travelled across Australia to the Northern Territory. His first appointment was at the remote coastal community of Maningrida in Arnhemland where he worked as the Craft Advisor at the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation and later as Adult Educator with the NT Education Department.
Geoff worked in Arnhemland for more than two years, and while the experience caused a new direction in his painting, it also stimulated the desire in him to experience and observe other cultures away from Australia.
In 1987, he relocated from Maningrida to Batchelor where he was the Art Lecturer at Batchelor College. In 1989, he moved to Darwin and lectured in Sculpture and Drawing at the NT University (now Charles Darwin University). Since 1990 Geoff has worked as a full time artist.
During his time in the Top End, the proximity of Indonesia beckoned and became a new haunt for Geoff and his family. After many visits and long term working periods in this country, work began to accumulate. There he found a people committed to life, religion, festival and art – an ideal environment for an artist who has always used the human form as an integral and inspirational role in his work.
The work Geoff completed in Indonesia attracted much interest and has been purchased by numerous collectors throughout Australia and Indonesia. In Indonesia, his work is featured in the Duta Art Foundation, Jakarta; the Rudana Museum, Bali; the Museum Diponegoro, Tegairejo, Yogyakarta and Museum Diponegoro, Magelang, Java.
In 1999, Geoff held an exhibition at the BentengVredeberg (Dutch Fort) in Yogyakarta which was opened by Prince Prabukusomo of the Yogyakarta Kraton. The response to his exhibition resulted in articles appearing in The Bulletin (Australia) and Indonesian newspapers such as Jakarta Post, Kedaulatan Rakyata, Suara Merdeka, Yogya Post, Bernas and a cover story in the publication Mistik, all acclaiming his work and establishing him as a respected artist within Indonesia.
Artwork of Geoff Todd can be viewed on the 1st and 6th Floors of the hotel plus in the Hotel Atrium on the Ground Floor
Leslie Van Der Sluys
artworks of Birds & Flowers
Leslie van der Sluys was born in Melbourne in 1939. His general art training was undertaken at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with, among others, Tate Adams, and later at the Melbourne State College. He also has a BA (Art History and Classical Studies) from the University of Melbourne.
He has been making linocuts of Australian floral and faunal subjects since he was at high school, where he was introduced to the genre by Sydney relief printmaker, Florence Higgs who through the example of her own work introduced him to the rich formal and decorative potential of the Australian flora.
After an informal apprenticeship as a landscape painter in both London and Melbourne with John Perceval during the 1960’s, he taught art in secondary schools while pursuing plain air landscape painting around Heidelberg and the Yarra Valley at weekends.
In 1980 he returned to his former interest in linocut and the following year became a full time printmaker, employing his earlier experience as a watercolourist in the hand colouring of his single block prints. Although it is more painstakingly laborious, he prefers this process to the multiple-block, printed colour method because of its greater luminosity. It also allows more opportunity for the subtle modulation of tone and hue.
Artwork of Leslie van der Sluys can be viewed in the Reception Area of the Hotel on the Ground Floor.
Ludovic Collingwood
Caricatures of animals
Ludovic Collingwood was born in France in 1968, near Bordeaux. Ludo spent his formative years in a country renowned for its revolutionary thought and quirky humour. For as long as he can remember his delight in music has stimulated his desire to draw so as to express his personal feelings, to make a social comment on human nature as he perceived it.
For his earlier work Ludo chose the medium of pen and ink. This suited his delicate touch and attention to detail. But since 1986 he has mastered the use of oils in a manner that equally suits his unique style.
Once he had mastered his current medium, an achievement he has made with steady progress over the past years, Ludo was able to portray his very pertinent perception of human nature, through his quaintly humanised animal characters. His paintings reveal his acute awareness of human foibles and frailties of human joys and sorrows with the radical and slightly satirical suggestion that we might all be a little nicer if we resembled the animals he creates to represent us. It is this quality of thought, combined with his delicate sense of colour and line that gives his paintings a delightfully intriguing quality.
Artwork of Ludo Collingwood can be viewed on the 5th Floor of the hotel.
Kim Moore Designs, Mirror and Mosaic Artist –
Mosaics featured on each floor between the lifts.
Kim’s designs are unique, unusual and highly individual. Using a combination of mirror pieces and stunning stones, Kim has created large bold mirror mosaics. As well she has produced powerful descriptive more traditional landscape mosaics.
The works are on a scale designed to bring large areas to life. All pieces are grouted and sealed making them idea for hanging either inside or in outdoor areas.
Kim lives with her family in the Gilmore Valley in the foothills if the Snowy Mountains. She draws her inspiration from nature, abstract patterns observed and unusual landscapes. Kim has been involved in various art medium’s such as sketching, oil painting and stained glass since childhood. She is passionate about the quality of her work and has produced a number of these pieces with the view to providing a platform to launch a collection and show the breadth of her talent. Viewings can be arranged by appointment and commissions are happily considered.
Contact Kim Moore on
‘Roseview’ Studio
West Gilmore Road
Gilmore Valley NSW
P – 02 6947 5211
If you wish to find out more information on any of the artists or artwork featured throughout the property we suggest a visit to the Framed Art Gallery.
Framed
55 Stuart Highway, Darwin, Australia.
Tel 61 (08) 8981 2994 -- Fax 61 (08) 8941 0883
framed@framed.com.au
