Exhibition you have been waiting for.

Renée Sage and Mandi Whitten invite you to the opening of their first mother / daughter exhibition...

~ OffSpring ~
"A celebration of Life, of Love and of Spring."

A mother / daughter exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Mixed-media and Photography.

OFFSPRING
at Bliss Organic Garden Café
(National winner of the 2010 “I Love Food” awards for best vegan / vegetarian café)
7 Compton Street, Adelaide
Running from 5th - 31st October 2010

Official opening Thursday 7th October from 6pm - 8pm

The official opening at 6pm on Thursday October 7th will include a talk by the very special guest speaker and acclaimed Adelaide artist, Anna Platten. Anna is considered to be “one of the most  important artists of current times” and is represented in collections throughout Australia including The Art Gallery of SA, Parliament House in SA and the National Gallery of Canberra, as well as private collections worldwide.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Renée Sage
Raised in a suburb of New York City, Renée was exposed to art from childhood and always wanted to become an artist.
At university she studied Psychology, Sociology, and Special Education.
Renée migrated to Adelaide in 1972, and, while raising four children, she worked as a Special Education teacher, specialising in children with severe behavioural problems.
Renée studied Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at Adelaide Central School of Art. She is a Life Member of the ACSA Painting Group, and was its coordinator for ten years. In 2001, Renée was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Afghanistan Embassy for her “Triptych”.
Renée’s works are held in private collections in Australia and the U.S. as well as the Flinders Medical  Centre: Arts in Health, Permanent Collection.

For this exhibition, Renée has focused on the beauty and the repetition as well as the transience of  Nature, and has emphasised colour relationships and the nuances of colour. Iris was the messenger of the gods and the personification of the rainbow. Thus the iris symbolises ideas and messages. The larger than life scale of the works allows the viewer time to better understand and appreciate Nature.

Mandi Whitten
Into her third career, Mandi is a self-employed website designer and developer, print designer and photographer, having re-trained in her thirties after seven years each as a partner in a furniture manufacturing business, and earlier as a picture framer.
Photography has been a passion for Mandi since a young child.
Within the last few years, she has developed a distinctive style within her work, with original subject matter being most influenced by the Fleurieu Peninsula, where she lived for four years. Moving back to the city late 2008 saw Mandi's work change again, with subject matter ranging from urban decay,  and more experimental work, looking at life after this “city-change”.
Awards won for her photography include the Silver Award - Open Section for the 2009 International Aperture Awards for her image, “Three Imaginary Boys”, and first place in the inaugural “World Art Competition and Exhibition, 2008” in collaboration with Humna Mustafa for their image “Fire Within III”.

Artist statement:
“My passions in life pivot around the desire to feel, and give feeling to others. Too many people live in isolation, sometimes physical, but mostly emotional. We all need people to make us complete. Human beings are designed to work best in tandem, not isolation. The five senses - each of them stimulating the brain into action - are most acute when awakened by another being. The touch of skin on skin, the taste of a meal cooked with love, the sounds of a baby crying, the smell of sweat, and  the vision of someone suffering in pain. We should not deny ourselves  the basic rights of our senses; feel every pain and every pleasure with an insatiable thirst. For when you feel "in the raw" is when you are truly  alive.”

MEDIA INTERVIEWS
and social photographers please contact:
Renée Sage - 0417 881 172
Mandi Whitten - 0403 257 022
Bliss Organic Café - 08 8231 0205

www.offspring.net.au
www.renéesage.com
www.mandiwhitten.com
www.blissorganicCafé.com.au

SPONSORS:
Renée & Mandi would like to sincerely thank and acknowledge the following businesses, without whom this exhibition would not have been possible:

O'Leary Walker Wines
Patrick of Coonawarra
Ashton Valley Fresh
Atkins Technicolour
Kwik Kopy Norwood