Multi-award winning Garry Fleming has more than earned his stripes as an artist.
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The Southern Highlands man has won a number of awards including the Zoological Award and the Whitely Award.
He has also won the Wilderness Award twice for his beautifully detailed paintings, the Royal Agricultural Society's Birds and Wildlife Award three times.
Garry will showcase a collection of his impressive artwork at Milk Factory Gallery in an exhibition titled 'Wildlife Paintings from around the World.'
The exhibition is his first in the Southern Highlands, although he has exhibited in the Hunter Valley, Sydney and Europe.
The works use both oils and watercolours and feature animals from big cats to tiny wrens.
Milk Factory Gallery coordinator Shirley Becke said she was immediately impressed by the detail of Garry's paintings. "It's a real privilege to show his work because he is renowned for his wildlife paintings and we've only had him in the gallery as a new artist for the last maybe six months," she said.
"As soon as I saw his work I knew he'd have to have a solo exhibition.
"Garry's artwork is absolutely stunning and you just don't see work like this very often."
An interesting technique of Garry's is to start each of his paintings by beginning with the eyes of the subject.
"I do a lot of close up portraiture of animals, so for me I have to put the eyes in first because they're the essence of the animal and it grows around that," Garry said.
Garry said although some of his skills comes down to a natural aptitude, hard work is an important part of the equation.
"I think you improve every time you paint, it doesn't matter if it's a lion or a wolf, there's always something you look at and think 'Oh, I really got that this time,'" he said. Garry has also been commissioned to paint a number of portraits for the Jeans for Genes Day art auction including Geoffrey Rush, Billy Crystal, Ricky Martin and Delta Goodrem.
Visitors to the Milk Factory Gallery will be able to see the master with paintbrush to canvas over upcoming weekends.
Garry will have his easel set up in Milk Factory Gallery and will demonstrate how he approaches his subject matter.
He will be in the gallery this Saturday for the exhibition opening, Easter Saturday and the following Sunday, April 12. "I'd love for people to come up and say hello and ask questions and have a look at what I do," Garry said.
The show will open tomorrow, Saturday, March 28 at Milk Factory Gallery and will continue throughout April. For details contact the gallery on 4862 1077.
