June 3 - August 23, 2024

Artist talk tickets

Artist Talk: Friday August 9, 5:30-6:30pm

list of works

The Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Free entry, all welcome

You can find A Resting State in The Mill’s Gallery I, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery I is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.

Hamish Fleming, George Gilles, Anthea Jones, Robert Viner Jones and Billy Oakley

The Mill is excited to present A Resting State, a new exhibition curated by resident artist Hamish Fleming, featuring work by Hamish Fleming, George Gilles, Anthea Jones, Robert Viner Jones and Billy Oakley. In A Resting State artists have used the medium of painting as a device to create mood and atmosphere within everyday environments. Self-taught artist and now emerging curator, Hamish, has worked closely with the artists to develop an exhibition environment that is rich with feeling through the use of lighting, texture and colour.

download the catalogue

A Resting State explores the relationship between the individual and their routine environment. Five artists working across different mediums and traditions have created works from mundane domestic settings. By focusing on what is, at first glance, incredibly simple subject matter, each of these works delve into the subtler elements of image making to take these common surroundings and bring forth their potential to reflect contemporary experience. From more traditional realism to dark, vibrant expressionism and even crisp nonrepresentational works, A Resting State is a visual demonstration of how the mental experience impacts our perception of daily life.

About the artists:

Artist statement
Domestic settings and household objects are not uncommon in my work. The visual symptoms of who we are and what we’re like behind closed doors fascinates me. Habits, rituals and vices are intrinsically intimate when addressed rather bluntly. My work is painted solely from life, and I attempt to address my subjects earnestly, often gravitating towards darker, grungier subject matter. These five works address the domestic environment, specifically mine, in two different emotional tones. The works; Sink, Again and Just Don’t Think of it So Much, open with on a darker tone. Despite their more sullen nature, there’s a comfort to be found in each, however; its cold comfort at best. Flat, Exterior, Late depicts my personal residence, observed from the outside in later hours of the night. Possessing both sinister qualities and a strangely inviting allure, the work presents this environment with foreboding welcome. Contrastingly, A Gentle Steep and Off the Clock are imbued with tenderness and a quiet warmth, shifting from the more solemn, gritty nature I typically present my work in. Objects huddled up and tucked closely together present an emotional intimacy, and a sense of comfort in company.
Biography
H. Fleming is a contemporary realist painter currently based in Adelaide (Kaurna Country), South Australia. Fleming is a self-taught artist, working closely both with and against the long-standing traditions of realism. He works solely from life, without the use of any reference photos, to convey the subtler elements of the human experience through frequently mundane subject matter. Fleming’s practice draws upon many influences, ranging from the classical masters and post-modernism, to gothic and dirty realism literature. In 2023 Hamish has been a finalist in the Bluethumb Art Prize, Centre for Creative Health Art Prize, and Smallacombe Prize, and winner of the Young Artist Category, Adelaide Parklands Art Prize.
https://hflemingartist.squarespace.com/
Artist statement
My ongoing body of work is an allegory for the collective human experience of fear instinct, the feeling just before the bad thing happens. My paintings explore the feeling of your stomach dropping just before the smoke screen is lifted. I have developed two series for this exhibition. The first is a departure from my previous larger scale post-modern expressionist works. I wanted to explore how more realistic form rendering and recognisable subject matter affects the audience's ability to relate to the work. Objects appear in and out of a dark background, emphasising the dichotomy between the mundane and uncomfortable. I have worked in many layers over time to achieve a representational, yet grimy atmosphere. The scenes were constructed in a cardboard box and lit by a single candle’s flame. I wanted to communicate the feeling of a precipice, a silent edge hidden within the normal everyday. Fruit is just about to topple and crash out of the composition, glass that could cut you, a glinting out-of-place corkscrew forced into an apple, forks jabbed into sliced lemons contrasted with pretty ribbons and high chroma, complementary colours.
Building on from the first series, the works in the second series get larger, forcing the audience to stand further back and absorb the more complicated scenes. Dramatic candle light is still used, and the paintings still have sections of intense colour, but are now overall darker, dirtier and less reliant on simpler impressionistic colour-blocking. My rendering techniques shift to deliberate areas of lose, textural brush strokes contrasting against smooth blends, a palette knife was also introduced to diversify mark making. Scenes reflect potential danger: unlit matches next to a wooden doll, a precarious palette knife covered in red paint that looks like blood, perched, teetering glassware, random pins piercing the paintings. Items that could hurt you but usually don’t. The second series also has a personal undercurrent, each painting representing a conflict either with my internal thoughts or external interpersonal interactions. The lined paper within the jar of ‘Love, George x’ is a handwritten letter addressing a disagreement I had with someone. Despite my intentions I never delivered the letter.
Biography
George Gilles is a painter and tattoo artist from Adelaide, South Australia. In 2016 she was awarded a state merit for visual art and continued to pursue a career in the industry, winning the Emerging Artist awards from both The Prospect Portrait Prize and Urban Cow Art Prize. Since then she has been part of The Carclew Sharehouse Residency, presented her debut solo exhibition 'The Way Home' and has co-founded Adelaide Arcade’s first tattoo studio, The Gilded Goblin.
George’s painting practice is driven by her desire to communicate emotional nuance through figurative works as well as inanimate objects and food. Currently, she is creating a body of work that pays homage to the traditional Dutch still life movement whilst also exploring personification and profundity of inanimate objects.
https://www.instagram.com/georgegilles_tattoo/
Artist statement
As an adult and an artist, where I lived and where I created were often one space, indeterminate of boundary, where did one end and the other begin? However, as a child there was never a doubt, my home was also my studio and gallery - my whole world. Home and the domestic was, and continues to be a constant source of comfort and inspiration. My two main paintings in this exhibition represent my earliest memory of deciding I would be an artist to finishing my art studies many years later!
From around age 4 or so I would constantly be found playing (hiding) alone behind the couch, in my own little world. Drawing and making: creating whatever I could with all the bits and pieces from around the house. Always engaged, never bored, learning and developing new skills. Nothing has changed - 60 years later I am still doing the same thing, just not behind the couch!
My painting The artist’s studio aged 6 - they ARE flowers mum! represents my earliest memory, deciding to be an artist. My mum was horrified at the drawing I insisted was flowers and not spiders. It did prompt the purchase of my first set of water paints and maybe started my subsequent lifelong love of colour theory and flora - who knows! It was also my first awareness of the idea that not everyone sees things the same way and I became more interested in representing things with a degree of accuracy.
My painting The artist’s kitchen aged 60 - anatomy and teacup follows this trajectory through to finishing my art studies. Although I now have a designated studio my art paraphernalia still infiltrates my living space. Whilst studying anatomy there were numerous skulls, skeletons and écorché models casually resting amongst the teacups and the milk jug. As an artist these objects were my normal- their shapes, colours, the shadows they projected and the atmosphere they created mixed in with the detritus of my regular everyday world.
Biography
Anthea Jones is a visual artist and inveterate maker. Born in Millicent, now living in Adelaide, her formal qualifications include an Advanced Diploma in Visual and Applied Art, North Adelaide School of Art, a Graduate Diploma in Management (Arts), UniSA and a Graduate Certificate in Art History (Australian Colonial and Modern), University of Adelaide. In 2023, Anthea received the award of a Diploma in Atelier Art, Rob Gutteridge School of Classical Realism, Adelaide (an accredited atelier with the International Art Renewal Centre).
Supplementing her formal studies, she has also attended numerous masterclasses at Adelaide Central School, summer school at the London Academy of Realist Art and life painting with acclaimed contemporary artist Shane Wolf in Yorkshire, UK. After the disappointment of a cancelled three months study at the New York Academy in 2020, Anthea was invited to and will be attending, a one-month residency at Chateaux d’Orqueveaux in France in June 2024.
Anthea has successfully participated in numerous local and interstate art exhibitions and competitions and has had photographs of her works published. While her art training and focus has been on figurative oil painting and drawing, she also enjoys creating with textiles, mixed media, paper and found objects. Anthea is enthralled by the principles, elements and techniques incumbent in developing an artistic piece.
https://antheajonesartist.com/
Artist Statement
Working in fashion design brought me to painting, it was how I relaxed. I love the precision of painting circles. I've worked with colour all my life and have developed a reasonably sharp eye for hue and will spend hours considering shades etc. The bright colours, the defined shapes - it connects with my love of mid 20th century design, which I reference within my printmaking practice. Plus there is something about multitudes of shapes, a plethora of colour I enjoy - I think of these works as a herd of dots.
Each colour is defined, there is no bleed between the images and I paint multiple layers to add a depth and intensity. Having come back to painting after practicing as a screen printer, I’ve found that I have wrestled with the texture. I’ve been thinking about how to make it flat, how to get rid of the texture. I’ve remembered how I achieved this years ago and yet now, I have also grown to love the texture and instead, have embraced the brush strokes.
I am inspired by Joseph Albers and Bauhaus design. I have a book of Josef’s which I have regularly referenced for about 20 years. The blues, the greys and the stone are a nod those Bauhaus colours. I’ve added a pop of red, it's like a ruby. I usually use bright colours, so the curatorial brief for this exhibition has pushed me out of my comfort zone. My second work is a bit brighter, naughtily pushing back against the boundaries of the curatorial rationale.
Biography
Robert Viner Jones (AKA Bob Window) is a contemporary printer/painter based in Adelaide (Kaurna Country). Robert’s works offer bold, uncompromising graphics - stark and confident in their nature. Trained in Sydney, obsessed with design and colour, Robert’s works draw heavily on fearlessness of mid 20th century design plus an unbridled willingness to simply paint and print things that make him smile.
https://bobwindow.com.au/
Artist Statement
My works are representational and figurative explorations of the subconscious. I like to use narratives, people and places sourced from my life. The imagery of naive childish spooky dreams and silly fears rest at the bottom of the subconscious of the artist, here they are brought to the surface to be seen in their curiously cute seriousness and sulky playground dissatisfaction. I use deeply rich, bold and unnatural colours to illuminate solitary figures in their own environments, blurring the line between real and surreal. My work focuses on people and the deep personal mental worlds they create, how they exist within those spaces and the relationship outside reality has with this space.
Biography
Billy Oakley is a South Australian Artist exploring the subconscious through narrative imagery, people and place through his oil paintings.  The imagery of naive childish spooky dreams and silly fears rest at the bottom of the subconscious, and here they are brought to the surface to be seen in their curiously cute sulky seriousness. Billy has exhibited at Floating Goose, Urban Cow, Collective Haunt, Brunswick Street Gallery, Mixed Spice Studios and The Mill.
https://www.billyoakley.com/