Rick Godfrey – Lake Mungo Sandscapes
14 August - 25 September
Rick’s first exhibition of acrlyic “nature scapes” in 2006 was a sell-out with favourable reviews in the local press. This second exhibition shows once again Rick’s ability to represent the natural environment in detail. Rick’s Sandscapes mirror the extensive diversity of Lake Mungo National Park in western NSW. The lake bed is part of the Willandra Lakes System which dried up about 15,000 a years ago. The area comprises a mixture of flat mallee scrub, sand dunes and the famous Walls of China lunettes which have been formed by erosion over thousands of years. Read media release.Click on each photo to view a web album of Rick's current exhibition (all photos copyright, not to be used in any way without artist's permission)
Lunette 3 - 120cm x 80cm, $3900 
Sand Drift 1 - 40.5cm by 30.5cm $600
Sand Drift 4 - 40.5cm by 30.5cm $600 SOLDLunette 6 - 122cm x 91cm $4200
Lake Mungo’s timeless beauty inspires shifting ‘sandscapes’ exhibition There’s great excitement at Mawson Gallery where Canberra artist Rick Godfrey launches his second solo exhibition on 14 August.
Rick’s first exhibition of exquisitely detailed acrylics of the Kimberlys in 2006 was a sellout and attracted favourable reviews.
His current show focuses his sharp artist’s eye on the shifting sandscapes of the world famous Lake Mungo region in New South Wales.
Rick - a designer/illustrator for 30 years before turning to fine art - gave the world album cover art for classic, iconic bands such as AC/DC, the Easybeats and Ol ‘55. He also designed the interior wall illustrations of the first Qantas jumbo jets in the 1970s.
His new show “Lake Mungo Sandscapes” captures the extensive diversity of Lake Mungo - a part of the Willandra Lakes System which dried up about 15,000 years ago.
It is famous for its internationally important archaeological finds, especially as the home of “Mungo Man” believed to be the remains of an Indigenous person stretching back some 40,000 years.
“The area is a mix of flat mallee scrub, sand dunes and the famous Walls of China lunettes which have been formed by erosion over thousands of years,” Rick said.
“I was immediately struck by the timeless beauty of its craggy peaks and lunettes, but also by its ever changing, shifting sandscape forms.”
It was a similar immediate connection with the land during a holiday trip to the magnificent Kimberley region in WA six years ago that set Rick on his fine art journey.
“I realised that nature provided a treasure house of diversity, shapes and colours and I have not stopped painting since then,” he said. “I have a deep love and concern for the environment and I aim to capture that passion in my paintings.”
Rick’s vibrant paintings are partly landscape and partly “magnifying glass close-ups” of nature’s elements - all on the same canvas.
Born in Sydney and reared in Brisbane, Rick studied with renowned Sydney designer, the late Phyllis Shillitoe and went on to study art in what now is the Southern Cross University at Lismore in the early 1980s. He settled in Canberra in 1986.
The exhibition begins at MAWSON GALLERY, 63 Wilkins Street, Mawson on 14 August and runs to 25 September. The official opening will be at 6pm, Saturday 14 August. Gallery opening hours are 10.30am - 5.30pm Thursday to Sunday. Phone 6161 2177.
Recent Exhibitions:(Please contact us if you are interested in any available works from these recent exhibitions)Phil Ryan - Aspects of New South Wales rainforests
