Blazing Orange Sky

Fine Arts, Sydney is presenting an exhibition of work by Gretchen Albrecht, an eminent figure of abstract painting in Australasia. The exhibition focuses on a painting from 1972 titled 'Blazing Orange Sky', exemplary of Albrecht's work and definitive of the period in its composition and arresting use of colour. Constructed from synthesised and cumulative sensations of land, sea, and skyscape, the painting features horizontal bands of rich colour stained into raw canvas. This is the first occasion of this painting's exhibition to a public audience. Accompanying the painting are a series of gouaches dating from 2016, also exhibited for the first time. These works recall the style of gouaches Albrecht painted en plein air through the 1970s, with a similarly constructed sense of atmosphere. Albrecht was born in 1943 and studied at Elam School of Fine Arts from 1960-1963. Her first solo exhibition was in 1964, opened by Colin McCahon. Over six decades, her paintings have featured in numerous solo, survey, and retrospective exhibitions at galleries and public institutions.