See and believe

By Casey Neill
POTTERS and painters will throw open the doors to their creative spaces this weekend for the Dandenong Ranges Open Studios.
Glass, wood, digital, ceramic and textile artists will all invite visitors into their hidden hills workspaces on 29 and 30 May.
The Patch artist Tracey Roberts will again participate after last year welcoming about 200 people into her hemispherical art space during the two-day event.
Visitors to Ms Roberts’s studio can check out the artwork she has produced over the past four years.
“My house will be set up like an art gallery and I’ll also be doing a house concert on both days at 2pm for half an hour,” she said.
“I’ll be singing and playing my grand piano.”
A drummer will accompany her as she presents original tunes. “Some will connect with the artwork as well,” she said.
“That’s something important to understand about my work is that the art and the music is often very closely related.”
Ms Roberts has synesthesia, meaning she ‘sees’ colours and images in her mind while listening to music.
Her latest work is based on a sacred piece of music from the renaissance era called Miserere, which is written by Gregorio Allegri.
“Basically, the colours are the colours that I see when I listen to that piece of music,” she said. “It’s not immediately obvious, you need to look at it, but there’s 11 people and a woman praying and the colours of the music and all the weaving harmonies and a crystal clear high C.”
This painting will appear in the Dandenong Ranges Open Studios exhibition Out of the Blue, which will be on display at Burrinja until 13 June.
Each Open Studios artist has selected one artwork for the collection.
The Dandenong Ranges Open Studios Weekend will run from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 May.
Many of the studios are open at other times throughout the year by appointment.
Burrinja is located at 351 Glenfern Road, Upwey.