KIRSTIE Rea is one of our local treasures. An award-winning, full-time Canberra artist, she has worked and taught in Australia, Canada, America and Europe.

Praised for her spare, minimal work, which is included  in the permanent collections nationally and internationally including the Victoria  & Albert Museum in London, and the  NGA, in  2009 she received the Honorary Life  Member Award from AusGlass, the  Australian Association of Glass Artists.

A recent residency in Alberta has formed the inspiration for Rea’s current work “Under a Canadian Sky”,  created specifically for the exhibition space at Bilk Gallery.

The play of light and energy inspired by the  Canadian land and cloudscapes are  reflected in her sensitive application of cutting and cold-colouring glass  techniques, to produce a muted spectrum, within the layers and circular systems cleverly created through the  manipulation of shapes.

“Travelling out and about in Alberta, through snow and ice, watching a city function and flow each  day as the space between me and the  sky filled gently with snow,” she says.

“Layers and  systems circled around and above me  and the city hummed though subdued  by the snowy landscape. A soft, solid  pale blue sky lay persistently behind the  snow laden clouds.”

“Under a Canadian  Sky”, Kirstie Rea glass, at Bilk Gallery for contemporary metal and glass, until May 26, Palmerston Lane Manuka.