November at Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios

November at Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios brings two exhibitions by long-time friends who look at the Australian landscape in very different ways. Peter Day turns to the country between the coast and the desert, while Colin Husband paints the moments when things shift. The centre is also holding its Annual General Meeting, and Term 4 classes for adults and children continue into December.

Now showing: 4 – 28 November

Two concurrent solo exhibitions are on show side by side for most of the month. Both artists have deep ties to the gallery. Each returns after an earlier solo show there, and both turn their attention to the Australian landscape from very different directions.

The two shows share a joint opening event, and everyone is welcome.

In Between by Peter Day

International Australian artist Peter Day has just come back from exhibiting in Venice with Personal Structures, held in association with the Venice Biennale. He returns to Gallery Lane Cove with In Between, a new show of paintings and sculpture drawn from around a decade of work.

The exhibition follows on from his earlier Gallery Lane Cove show, SAND: BeacheSANDeserts, which looked at Australia’s coastlines and arid regions. This time he turns to the vast rural country in between. The works are an empathetic and at times playful reflection on rural Australia, and the range of styles reflects the years over which they were made. One image keeps coming back: the horizon. For Day it is a defining feature of the Australian landscape and also a metaphor for life, a line between earth and sky that mirrors the journey between birth and death.

Day’s approach draws on his own travels and on writing about Australia. He cites Don Watson, Tim Winton, David Marr, Bruce Chatwin, Bruce Pascoe, Richard Flanagan and D. H. Lawrence among his influences.

Day is a Sydney-based artist known for his paintings, sculpture and large-scale public artworks. Over a career of more than four decades he has created over 200 site-specific projects in Australia and overseas and held more than 30 solo exhibitions. His recent international presentations include the Personal Structures exhibitions in association with the Venice Biennale in 2024 and 2026.

More about In Between | RSVP to the opening | Request a catalogue

Watersheds by Colin Husband

A watershed is both a place and a threshold, the line where water divides and sets off in a new direction. In Watersheds, Colin Husband uses that idea to paint moments of change, some tiny and some life-changing, whether they arrive subtly, suddenly or irrevocably. He uses the title to think about change, memory and movement, and the turning of tide, fortune, direction and life itself.

Drawing on both the force and the fragility of the natural world, his paintings channel that energy through gesture, colour and atmosphere, moving between intimate marks and wide open spaces that invite close looking. They are landscapes felt as much as seen: weathered, remembered and imagined. At their heart they are about crossings and edges, the point where certainty loosens and the viewer is invited to wander, lose their bearings and find a new orientation. The artist’s own advice to viewers is simple: let the images speak to you, because that is their true meaning.

Husband was born in Stanmore in 1946, grew up in Windsor and Pennant Hills and went to school in Bathurst. Like many children of the time, he travelled regularly between the city and the country to visit family on the land. Those trips gave him a lasting curiosity about how things work, an eye for the small details of landscape that help you find your way home and a feel for the swing between seasons of want and plenty.

Husband trained as an industrial designer and owned a commercial and advertising photography studio in Sydney for more than 40 years. He has been an Archibald Prize finalist, won the Outback Art Prize and been a Gosford Art Prize finalist seven times. His work is held in the permanent collection of Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and in the Fuji/ACMP Photographers Collection at the Art Gallery of NSW. His last solo show, Arboreta Imaginari [imagine trees], was also held at Gallery Lane Cove.

He now divides his time between Sydney and the Central Coast, where he shares a bush block with his partner Jojo. It is visited by lyrebirds and black cockatoos, and ruled by a bob-tailed goanna and a very bolshy wallaby.

More about Watersheds | RSVP to the opening

A friendship on the walls

The pairing of the two shows is no accident. In his exhibition notes, Husband names Peter and Rina Day first among the artists and friends who have supported and encouraged him.

Each brings more than four decades of creative work to the walls: Day through painting, sculpture and large-scale public art, Husband through painting alongside a long career in commercial photography. Both have spent years looking closely at the Australian landscape. Seen together, the exhibitions offer two distinct ways of reading the same country: Day’s long horizon lines and Husband’s turning points and thresholds.

Annual General Meeting: Wednesday 18 November

Centrehouse Inc., the not-for-profit that manages Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios, will hold its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 18 November. Business will include:

• Reports from the President and Treasurer on Centrehouse’s activities in 2025-26
• Adoption of the audited financial statements for the year ending 30 June 2026
• A Special Resolution to amend the Constitution
• Election of office-bearers and ordinary committee members

Term 4 classes continue

Term 4 classes run through November and into December.

Adult classes cover ceramics (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, plus an unsupervised Open Studio on Tuesdays) and painting and drawing (Abstract Art on Mondays, Paint & Draw on Wednesdays and Studio Set Up on Fridays).

The centre’s Gentle Hatha Yoga class runs away from the gallery, at the new Galuwa Recreation Centre on River Road. Open to all experience levels, it is a kind, permission-based class that uses breath, movement and mindfulness to help students relax, improve balance and leave feeling grounded. The Wednesday class began on 21 October and runs into December, with the nine-week course costing $288. Enrol in Gentle Hatha Yoga

Kids’ after-school classes include Creative Makers for 5 to 7 and 8 to 12-year-olds (Tuesdays, until 8 December), Pottery (Thursdays, until 10 December) and Sewing (Thursdays, until 3 December).

Term 4 Adult Classes | Kids’ Term Classes

Support the centre

Gallery Lane Cove is managed by Centrehouse Inc., a not-for-profit charity that has been bringing art and culture to the Lane Cove community for more than 50 years. It holds ROCO and DGR status, so donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Donate to Gallery Lane Cove

Visit

Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios
Upper Level, 164 Longueville Road, Lane Cove NSW 2066
02 9428 4898 | [email protected]
Tuesday – Friday 10 am – 4.30 pm | Saturday 10 am – 2.30 pm | Closed Sunday, Monday and public holidays
gallerylanecove.com.au