Tori de Mestre Artist
b. 1951 Wollongong
Mixed Blessings No3 2021
Collage 29x38cm
First met Tori in 2012 when I visited the property Callemondah, which was built by May Barrie and Wim Voorwinden, Tori‘s mother and father. An exhibition of May Barrie’s sculpture was being held and I purchased “Granite Fragment” (see collection entry for May Barrie). Then met again on a visit to Callemondah in 2016 when I purchased two of May Barrie’s drawings. May Barrie had died in 2014 at the age of 96. Have visited a number of times since and on the April 2023 visit, to have lunch with Tori and to see a joint exhibition of Tori’s and Jan Pana’s. Purchased “Mixed Blessings” from Tori’s studio, a work from a previous exhibition in 2021.
Callemondah is a collection of unique handbuilt stone studios, house and gallery, in rambling gardens and paddocks, showing sculpture, painting, prints and photography. Established by sculptor May Barrie and Wim Voorwinden in 1950 as a dairy farm and sculpture studio, it is nestled under the magnificent Illawarra Escarpment. Tori de Mestre now welcomes visitors and runs painting, drawing and print workshops in her studio next to the old dairy. Tori de Mestre had returned to the family farm in 1990 and set up a studio in the old hayshed- feeding stalls. Tori has exhibited and taught in the Textile Art field, nationally and internationally since 1979, including a solo exhibition of painting, collage and bronzes at Wollongong Art Gallery that explored the topography of the Calderwood valley and the enfolding escarpment.
Callemondah is a collection of unique handbuilt stone studios, house and gallery, in rambling gardens and paddocks, showing sculpture, painting, prints and photography. Established by sculptor May Barrie and Wim Voorwinden in 1950 as a dairy farm and sculpture studio, it is nestled under the magnificent Illawarra Escarpment. Tori de Mestre now welcomes visitors and runs painting, drawing and print workshops in her studio next to the old dairy. Tori de Mestre had returned to the family farm in 1990 and set up a studio in the old hayshed- feeding stalls. Tori has exhibited and taught in the Textile Art field, nationally and internationally since 1979, including a solo exhibition of painting, collage and bronzes at Wollongong Art Gallery that explored the topography of the Calderwood valley and the enfolding escarpment.