Don Rankin - Georgina Mills - Painting | Bronze sculpture - Friday 11 July - Saturday 2 August 2025

Positively Blooming

In late 1994 my art practice experienced two revelatory moments. I had taken a long look at the small still-life paintings by Chardin (18th century French) in the Louvre in Paris and was stunned by the power of his images of simple everyday things depicted on a shelf. On the same trip I also had the chance to view the small still-life paintings of Giorgio Morandi (20th century Italian) in Bologna. Prior to this I had been painting large abstract works influenced by other almost-contemporary practitioners. Both Chardin and Morandi were mavericks; they bucked the prevailing trends of their time and inspired the example which I was thereafter to follow.

On my return to Adelaide I set up a few similar scenarios in my studio and painted them. From then on I became hooked on the still-life genre and it has been my subject  ever since. Like Matisse and Baselitz, I do not feel the need to paint right up to the edges of a painting and I also like to leave traces of underlying paint visible (pentimenti) : one of my aesthetic concerns is to make the viewer aware of the paint and the painter’s touch – it creates a connection between viewer and subject. Figuration and abstraction to me are part of the same process – painting is all about the making of marks.

Don Rankin, artist 2025

Recent Works

Georgina Mills is a South Australian/ Kaurna based figurative sculptor who, between 2015 and late 2020, lived, studied and taught in Florence, Italy. Georgina primarily works from life, generally the nude, interpreting her concepts in clay. This translation is then cast, in varying materials with bronze being her preferred medium. Her practice today seeks to translate her technical skills in classical figurative sculpture into her own aesthetic to create works that connect profoundly with the viewer in modern Australia. Exploring moments in life that are often deeply personal however universal and fundamental to human existence.

Georgina has trained locally and internationally at the Adelaide College of the Arts (BA-Sculpture); University of South Australia (GradDip –Arts and Event Cultural Management); and the Florence Academy of Art, Italy (Advanced Sculpture). Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at the European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona (2019): finalist in the online Arts Renewal Centre Salon, United States (2019 & 2022); Tom Bass Prize, Sydney (2020 & 2022); Sheltering with Art, Florence Academy of Art Faculty Exhibition (2020); The David Roche Foundation, North Adelaide (2022); BMG Adelaide (2024); MARS Gallery, She Paints Her, Melbourne (2025). Georgina’s work is held in private collections in Milan and Florence, Italy; Spain; the US; Sweden and Australia.