Last time we checked in with A Place to Call Home star Tim Draxl, he was wearing a different cap. The performer is also an avid painter, unveiling his debut solo show of beautiful abstract paintings at Rex-Livingston Art + Objects in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains earlier this year. As fate would have it, he wasn’t able to attend because he was shooting a Liam Neeson blockbuster in Melbourne at the time.
Flash forward a few months and now no one can go to his second show, Ten Degrees. Which is a bit of a bummer given lockdowns also scuppered his star turn as Zac in Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s A Chorus Line. Instead, the same gallery will host a digital version of his latest exhibition online from Saturday, September 11, running until the 27th. Draxl will attend the Zoom-hosted ‘opening’ at 1pm that day. Anyone who wants to attend should email info@rex-livingston.com by close of business Thursday, September 9.
Like many of us turning to our passions during lockdown, painting was a form of therapy for Draxl. “My process wasn’t about producing works of art, but rather working through what I was dealing with at the time,” he says. “Whereas the first lockdown came with a lot of unknowns, the effects of this second lockdown are very apparent. There is a complacency born of fatigue and some days I’m much more conscious than on others. That is reflected in the paintings.”
As an actor, Draxl knows all about expressing himself. “These emotions manifest on the canvas, but it’s not a forced process. For me, it’s like a trust exercise; a trust in the emotion transferring to the painting.”
With the show curated by gallery owner David Rex-Livingston, he says he’s thrilled to welcome Draxl back, even if folks can only enjoy Ten Degrees online. “The response to Tim’s first show in January was phenomenal and people have kept asking when his next series of works would be ready. I was incredibly excited when Tim told me he was heading back to the studio.”
