'Henry Henkes had a wife called Rosina'

The Henkes collection is part of the visual ambiance of the Henkes restaurant in Shanghai China, contributing to a space built for casual modern dining. The 'Henkes' (413cm x 300cm oil on canvas) diptych is installed in the Trattoria, whilst the Café & Wine bar houses the series of works on paper titled 'Henry Henkes had a wife called Rosina'.

Henry Henkes was owner and chef Craig’s Willis' great grandfather. Originally from Germany, Henry migrated to Australia in 1800’s where he and his wife ran a family business, the ‘Henkes Bakery & Refreshment Rooms’ in the country town of Orange in New South Wales Australia. These gestural works serve to reference the names of a family that continues to inspire contemporary food, atmosphere and dining.

To view these works visit:

Henkes Restaurant Réel Shanghai Department Store 1E, 1601 Nanjing Xi Lu Shanghai 3253 0889

Graphite, charcoal, acrylic paint on paper 77 x 57cm

Works on paper 2018

Catching Rain

(1-9)

Hemp and cotton rag paper hold gestural powdered charcoal marks that are the series 'Catching Rain'.
The flatness of this medium allows for the residue of charcoal to dust across the surface and intensify a visceral sense of falling. This series explores the notion and the Buddhist tendency to regard life as a fluid and impermanent phenomenon.
There is nothing stagnant in my process of creating it is a continuous exploration of the moment and the unfolding of time; one breath to another, one mark to the next; an inquiry into the human condition, a manifestation of who I am. The act is liberating.

Catching Rain #1

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #2

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #3

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #4

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #5

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #6

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #7

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #8

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Catching Rain #9

Graphite Charcoal Acrylic Paper

80cm x 60cm

2018

Frottage

‘Scratching the Surface’

Frottage of China's underbelly

Crouched down on the streets of Shanghai, Xining, Hei Ma He, He Fei and Chongming Island I placed beautiful handmade paper from Guanxi Provence over the man hole covers.

Rubbing charcoal on paper I reveal patterns, textures and information about secrets below the surface of the street.

I trace where I have been, mapping the places that I love and scratch the surface of a China that continues to captivate and hold my gaze with awe and inspiration.

retrospect_galleries_Caitlin Reilly_scratching the surface #7_2014_159cmx93cm_Charcoal on Handmade paper from Guanxi Provence China.jpg

retrospect_galleries_Caitlin Reilly_scratching the surface #6_2014_159cmx93cm_Charcoal on Handmade paper from Guanxi Provence China.jpg

retrospect_galleries_Caitlin Reilly_scratching the surface #8_2014_159cmx93cm_Charcoal on Handmade paper from Guanxi Provence China.jpg

retrospect_galleries_Caitlin Reilly_scratching the surface #9_2014_159cmx93cm_Charcoal on Handmade paper from Guanxi Provence China.jpg

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The Swatch Art Peace Hotel Shanghai China: Caitlin Reilly Artist in Residence

Scratching the Surface
Portrait of Caitlin Reilly
A film by Dominique Othenin-Girard
Editor: Lu Yi

Artist books

'12 months in Shanghai' miniature artists books

'12 months in Shanghai' is a collection of 12 miniature artists books that diarise the personal transition from one culture to another.

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006
Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 30cm

'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World'.

A collaboration Between Caitlin Reilly and Kate Stead

'Looking Up From the Other Side of the World' is a visual dialogue of drawings between two Australian artist friends, one of whom is temporarily living in Shanghai, China, the other, living in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales in Australia.

'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World - Through The Eyes Of Children'

Schools project 2009

'12 months in Shanghai' miniature artists books

'12 months in Shanghai' is a collection of 12 miniature artists books that diarise the personal transition from one culture to another.

It is a collection of 12 miniature artists books that diarise the personal transition from one culture to another. Places and incidences, language barriers, symbolism and struggle sewn and drawn into these small pages that together accumulate an understanding of place and time.

'12 months in Shanghai' miniature artists books

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

'A scratched surface'

Documentation as a drawing observation of Mignon Falls, Australia. 2006 Assembled as an artist book.

Works on paper 30cm x 20cm

Miniatures

Sewn and drawn these small books emphasise drawing as a tool for communication and explore diverse means to make marks and record impressions to collate information assembled as artist books.

Miniatures

'House'

Thread and paper constructed as 'House'

Butterfly wings

Newspaper cut out assembled as 'butterfly wings'

'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World'.

A collaboration Between Caitlin Reilly and Kate Stead

The project was conceived as a daily dialogue between friends who were separated by distance but united as artists. In seeking something real to connect us, we became aware of the sky. When we looked up from our distant, other lands, we were in fact, connected by the same sky - not as solid as the earth beneath our feet but unlike lands, separated by oceans – this sky, we thought, was in essence the same sky that exists for all.

Here was an unbroken, physical connection between friends in different ‘worlds’. That sky, wrapping, as it does like a blanket around the globe, became our meeting place. It became our inspiration to draw our daily experiences of our worlds, new or familiar, joyous, or otherwise.

For 90 days, we looked up from the other side of the world and talked to each other about what we saw. We conducted a visual conversation about what it was like to witness what we saw … how it felt to see what we saw … what we thought we could see – and what we wanted to see … as friends do.

'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World'.

'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World - Through The Eyes Of Children'

In 2009, we (Caitlin Reilly and Kate Stead) spent a few months drawing as we looked up from where we stood in the world - Caitlin in China, Kate in Australia. The result of that visual dialectic is a book entitled Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World.

To share our experience of both cultural exchange and unification, we invited our local schools to participate in a similar adventure and draw their own findings. This book is a culmination of that project.

In Shanghai, the students of the Seven Flower Elementary School looked up and saw the tall buildings that surrounded them. The sky some days so blue other days so grey. When asked to close their eyes and reflect on the morning view they came to draw the people they looked up at the trees they saw and the colors of the buildings memories of experiences some are of their visit to the Shanghai Expo and perhaps imagined experiences that revealed their own looking more clearly.

In the township of Maclean, N.S.W. Australia, the children looked up to the tops of nearby buildings including the Catholic Church with its Sandstone bricks and stained glass windows; they saw a towering teacher who is apparently defined by his glasses and may, or may not be wearing an argyle knit. When their teacher, Mrs Donelan, released a bunch of balloons, they saw the magic of bright colours lighting up an otherwise dull, grey sky; and like us, they saw the ubiquitous electricity pole which draws its own parallel black lines across the sky all over the world.

To draw is to look each glance assembles evidence and through the eyes of these children from these two schools we have arranged a document that anchors their vision to a time and place forever cementing a perspective that innocently reveals a small insight into their world.

These two books are visual dialogues from 2009 – 2011 that emphasize the nature of drawing as a tool for communication.

All the drawings from the participating school children are curated in Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World - Through The Eyes Of Children as well as the collaboration between Caitlin Reilly and Kate Stead in Looking Up From the Other Side of the World were exhibited at the Xuhui Art Museum Shanghai from October – November 2011.

Curated by Artists Lin Qing and Caitlin Reilly.

'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World - Through The Eyes Of Children'

looking up (c) 7 flower school 09:2010.jpg

Shanghai works on paper 2012

Shanghai winter is the inspiration for this series of works on paper. The cold that engulfs the city, the buildings that serve as wind shields and monumental sign posts when navigating across the urban sprawl.

A limited palette of charcoal, graphite, pencil and acrylic white paint dictate the mark making process creating cement like textures.

This work was made in winter 2012 in Shanghai on my living room floor.

Charcoal, graphite, mixed media 77cm x 57cm

Charcoal, graphite, mixed media 77 x 57cm

Charcoal, graphite, mixed media 77cm x 57cm

'Encrypted' works on paper

Observation, urgency, layers, language, space, Chinese characters, beauty, Shanghai, reactivity, introspection, obscurity ........ key elements that fuse the Encrypted series. These works on paper were exhibited in Shanghai at 195 Anfu in June 2013.