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Abstract landscape artist Jules Sher lives and works in Perth, Western Australia. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1934, Sher is married to Durban-born artist Jean Sher. Against the backdrop of the post-war 1950s Sher pursued his artistic endeavours. From 1951 to 1954, he studied painting at the Johannesburg Art School and in 1956 travelled to the U.K. to study painting part-time at London’s Central School of Art, St Martin’s. In 1967 Sher immigrated to Australia and began a lifelong fascination with the majestic expanses of the land and sea of Western Australia.
Sher’s works are characterised by richness of colour, high horizons and dual perspectives. The artist changes the rugged expanses into inviting spaces, bridging the gap between actuality and visualisations of the mind’s eye. “The source of my work is an internalised expression of the visual experience of flights over man-made marks in the landscape – dispensing with the horizon of previous works, and further reducing images to close-up fragments,” says Sher. “The paintings have become layered informal geometric spaces balanced to achieve elegant design, light filled clarity and composure, while colour establishes a sense of harmony and luminosity.”
The signature of a Jules Sher abstract landscape painting is the dramatic, sheer force of the horizon drawing in the viewer. “In my paintings, an aerial point of view assists me in finding a more abstract vision of the landscape. In the studio, I reassemble my memories of the landscape, creating compositions that have spatial tension between open space and the placement of various landmarks. With the horizon line as a constant, I use the elements in an attempt to capture a certain mood in the relationship between earth and sky that is unique to Western Australia.” says Sher.
Sher’s work captures the innate spirit of the landscape, reflecting the strength and the fragility that coexists within art and nature. Jules Sher’s passion and respect for the vast Australian spaces blends with expressions of his personal vision; themes of time, change and evolution. Sher’s ability to release simplistic beauty, underscored by personal thoughts defines the artist’s works. As Pru J. Evans, Art Writer, Melbourne said, “Sher taps a profound metaphysical core of relationships to make us look deeper and go beyond the first pleasure quotient of his images. Jules Sher’s paintings are a marvellous affirmation of the creative act and lyric truth. Art that can do this is timeless.”
Jules Sher is represented in numerous Corporate and Private Collections across Australia and in South Africa, U.S.A., Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, France, Japan, Malaysia and Holland and Italy. His works are seen in the Hollywood Private Hospital Reception, Perth, John Inverarity Music Centre, Hale School, Perth and Board Room, Oncology Centre, Perth. Sher has also written and been featured in numerous publications. Sher has held numerous Solo Exhibitions from 1959 in London, Johannesburg, Sydney, Western Australia, Canberra and Melbourne. His many Group Exhibitions span shows from 1990 across Perth, Hong Kong, Queensland, Sydney, South Africa, and Western Australia.
Sher’s artistic merit has been widely acclaimed and has seen this important abstract artist receive numerous awards. In 1989 he won First Prize, Gallery Australia Exhibition, Perth, 1992, First Prize, WA DILGEA Migrant Art Award and First Prize, Hammersley Iron & Associates, Cossack Art Gallery, Western Australia. In 1993 Sher’s work was awarded Highly Commended, Heritage Council of Western Australia Art Award and in 1994 was Finalist in the Mandorla Religious Art Prize, Western Australia. In 2001 he was Prize Winner in the Cossack Art Awards, Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd., judged by Ken Done and in 2002 Sher again took out First Prize, 'Best Overall Artwork' in the Cossack Art Awards, Shire of Roebourne.
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