Janet Dawson, Night Lights 1, 2019, acrylic and oilstick on board, 61 x 76cm. Courtesy: the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne.

Charles Nodrum Gallery has shown a number of Janet Dawson’s works in group exhibitions over the years, and this marks the artist’s first solo show with the gallery. Dawson has been painting clouds since she was a child. She looks at clouds with the interested eye of the collector or the searching gaze of one looking for a friend in a crowd.

It’s difficult not to think of Hamlet poking gentle fun at Polonius’s ability (and ours) to interpret shapes so variously.

… yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

…. tis most like a camel, indeed.

… Methinks it is like a weasel.

… It is backed like a weasel.

… Or like a whale?

… Very like a whale.

Tempting though this may be, it should never distract from the deftness of the graphic touch and the almost mesmerising fascination we all experience when gazing at clouds.

Exhibition opens: 4–6pm Saturday 7 March 2020

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