Margaret River Region Open Studios adds new venue Ian Daniell Art Studio and Gallery to 2024 program

Working as an artist in London had its perks for Sunderland-raised Ian Daniell but it can not compete with the inspiration and opportunity he discovered on a trip to WA’s South West in 2018. Having dreamt of finding orcas in the wild for many years, a stopover in Perth on a trip to New Zealand proved to be both a life and career-defining moment. “My partner has family in Fremantle, so we came to WA for a few weeks and completely loved it,” Margaret River resident Daniell says. “During that trip, we went up to Ningaloo and found all sorts of amazing whale sharks and manta rays and beautiful reef systems. Then travelled to Margaret River, and then further on down to Bremer Bay, which as you probably know, is a good place for spotting killer whales. WA became this place where I sort of realised a dream I’d been having for a long time.” Moving permanently to the region soon after saw Daniell’s artistic practice evolve into life-size ocean art, beginning with a six-foot killer whale dorsal fin. “I made it life-size, and so that kind of gave birth to the idea all of the works would be life-size, on a one-to-one scale, whether that’s a small thing, a medium-sized thing or something metres and metres across,” he explains. “It’s been a really fun theme to stick to and my whole art practice is based on that now. “I went from watching David Attenborough documentaries where everything’s the size of the screen, whether that’s a tiny sea dragon or a massive manta ray, to seeing them in real life. There’s so much ocean life up and down the WA coast and I was blown away by the scale, certainly of manta rays and whale sharks. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of creatures to paint. There’s so much inspiration.” The 37-year-old artist opened Ian Daniell Art Studio and Gallery in Cowaramup in March, after years of sharing creative spaces with other artists. With walls a whopping 6m at their highest point, the gallery adequately caters to exhibit Daniell’s sizable works, along with a collection of his art in miniature print form. “I was just at that point in my career where lots of people were asking me when they came down south from Perth, if they could see my work somewhere,” Daniell says. “An exhibition usually only lasts a couple of weeks, if you’re showing at a gallery in Perth or down south, so it’s kind of on show for a limited time. I wanted to have my work permanently on display somewhere and whenever people were visiting the Margaret River region, they could pop in.” Working from his studio and gallery space gives visitors the opportunity to see behind the scenes, a model Daniell has taken from annual September event Margaret River Region Open Studios, applying it year-round to his art practice. “I think art can sometimes be difficult for people to relate to once finished and in a gallery somewhere, but when people can visit and see the person behind the work, see how it’s made, ask questions and relate on a deeper level, they really enjoy that,” he adds. Daniell will be one of 144 artists featuring in next month’s open studios event, featuring painters to potters and printmakers, milliners to mosaicists, timber craftspeople to textile creators and illustrators to installation artists. While it’s the first year Ian Daniell Art Studio and Gallery is a venue on the program, it is Daniell’s fourth year participating, including being Shelter Brewery’s artist-in-residence in 2022 after painting Humpback at the Busselton brewery, a 200sqm mural of a breaching humpback whale. At MRROS 2024, Daniell will be displaying a selection of his life-size ocean art from across the years, plus new works all based on jellyfish and creatures from the deep. “My practice has sort of expanded year on year, and I’ve finally got my own place, which is really cool,” he says. “I really didn’t think I would ever have my own studio in the way that I have it now, particularly not when I was in London. That felt like a very difficult or fanciful thing to achieve, and in WA, it just feels like opportunities are there to be taken and people are open and enthusiastic about artists. “I think Jim (Davies, MRROS Chair of the Board) refers to Margaret River Region Open Studios as an ‘arts safari’ and it really is. It’s a great adventure for people going into spaces and gaining access to bits of the art world you don’t usually get to see.” Ian Daniell Art Studio and Gallery will have a MRROS opening party from 4-7pm, September 7, with woodfired pizza truck and DJ. Margaret River Region Open Studios is on September 7 to 22. Artist and studio open times at mrropenstudios.com.au.