Robyn Kinsela

Another Covid year sees me calmly, slowly, picking through stuff trying to toss some, revitalise some and create some newies.

Although the sounds, smells, textures and views of the mountain behind me are constant sources of inspiration, the recent catastrophes of drought, floods, bushfires and Covid, have provided fodder for much of my current work. The creation of something of beauty, calm and optimism, are possibly my emotional diversions as I explore the sad, fragile and terrible beauty of our world.

My pictures have their roots in the real world, but are by no means images in the conventional sense. I don’t copy my subjects, I interpret them. Sometimes the materiality of my medium takes a dominant role and I become engrossed in its unique qualities.

Using acrylic and oil paints, collage and mixed media, I create rapidly at first, keeping up with my thoughts. Then I let the work rest for an hour, a day, a year or a decade, as if it needs an incubation period. I eventually re-see what has been created and finish the work.

I revisit many ideas, resulting in the continuous presence of common, sometimes tenuous, threads that mirror my life and experiences.

I work from my immediate responses to both tangible and intangible subjects like bushfire, illness, sunshine, quiet, uncertainty and blend them with memory. The list goes on and so my work evolves that way.

All works that have not sold already are still for sale:

https://theshac-exhibition-shop.square.site/shop/robyn-kinsela/54

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Open 10-4 Fridays to Mondays

www.theshac.com.au/

Happy New Year so far!

“Views of a Summer on Edge” SOLD while a finalist at the Sunshine Coast Art Prize at Caloundra Regional Art Gallery.

“The Burning” SOLD while on display on the online gallery Bluethumb. www.bluethumb.com.au/robyn-kinsela

While 2020 has been a bit still, a bit quiet, many of us are still beavering away, keeping occupied, keeping safe.

So, now I am revisiting works from which I will pick up threads to develop new works.

I loved, and still do, love these.

We seem to be heading for further lock down restrictions.

Hello studio!

News since I last posted includes my selection as a finalist in the Stanthorpe Art Prize. Due to Covid, this exhibition has been postponed until February 2021!!! Quite a few exhibitions have been cancelled, postponed or gone to online only. Many have thoughtfully waived or reduced their entry fees.

So, here are images of works that represent what I have been, and am, up to at the moment.

I am not so much interested in the subject as such, but rather what the subject can do for me as a vehicle of expression. The windy landscape is not about landscape or wind, but about uncertainty and immediacy, rawness and exposure, and the colours are accordingly chosen, maybe, to contradict all that!

I am pleased to have had this work (below) selected as a finalist in the Stanthorpe Art Prize.

I work from my immediate responses, both tangible and intangible. I was thinking about my brother whose land in northern NSW was engulfed by bush fire earlier this year. My approach with the paint was rapid at first, as were my thoughts.

I often work in series and this, being no exception, is a follow up from an earlier one which I needed to leave for fear of overworking it. Most often, I need a sort of incubation period, after which I return to the work to assess it for changes or corrections. I was desperate to keep the freshness so I quickly photographed and varnished it to avoid any “tidying up” that I am so often succumb to.

My brother is a proud keeper of the land, and I knew that he would see this as part of its evolution. And with that, a new beauty would emerge.

What a summer!

Bushfires, smoke, more bushfires, more smoke.

Packing, unpacking, repacking, unpacking.

Rain, floods, more rain.

Finally getting on track a bit….

Pre-bushfire works, below, are in the summer exhibition at the Milk Factory Gallery, Bowral.

I am pleased to announce that I have been selected as a finalist for the 2020 John Villiers Outback Art Prize at the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Queensland (6 March to 8 May).

These 3 works are part of the 20(2020) exhibition at TACIT Galleries in Collingwood, Melbourne which celebrates the Gallery’s 20th anniversary!

Artists who have shown with TACIT were invited to show up to 3 works each measuring 20 x 20 inches (52 x 52 cm). Should be interesting.

Here are my 3 works which have resulted by the summer we should not have had. My thoughts and therefore my work this year, since December, have been underscored by bush fires, evacuations, smoke and many friends’ losses, stresses and survival.

The recent bush fire season and its ramifications keep creeping into my work at the moment:

More …… Views from a Summer on Edge

My pictures have their roots in the real world, but are by no means images in the conventional sense. I don’t copy my subjects but interpret them. Sound, smell and touch play an important role.

Using collage and mixed media, I create rapidly at first, keeping up with my thoughts. Then I let the work rest for an hour, a day, a year or a decade, as if it needs an incubation period. I then re-see what has been created and finish the work.

“I work from memory of 10 minutes ago and 50 years ago”. (David Hockney)

The Southern Highlands Arts Festival Art Trail 2019 was, once again, an invigorating event for me!

My studio was open (Studio number 11) where you could view my work space, my tools of trade and the results of my mental and physical toil, some of which was for sale at studio prices.

This year I am in de-clutter mode, as difficult as it is, and there were some extraordinarily low prices for never-exhibited, demo and past glory works.

Chuffed to be, once again, a selected finalist in the Fisher’s Ghost Open Art Award.

Exhibition officially opens, and winner announced, at Campbelltown Arts Centre on Friday November 1.

Exhibition is open from October 26 and continues until December 5

Campbelltown Arts Centre One Art Gallery Rd, Campbelltown Open daily 10am – 4pm 4645 4100 | info@c-a-c.com.au | c-a-c.com.au

I am very happy to announce that I am a finalist in the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize to be held at Noosa Regional Gallery from 1 November to 1 December 2019.

ALSO I have been selected to be a finalist in the NOW Contemporary Art Prize to be held at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery from 5 October to 23 November 2019.

This is what I wrote when I finished the work earlier this year, and when Northern NSW was suffering major bushfires near Tabulum, among other places. Ironically, again this week, that same area is under bushfire attack again as are 60 something other areas in NSW and 67 in QLD, and it is only September!

“I work from my immediate responses, both tangible and intangible. I was thinking about my brother whose land in northern NSW was engulfed by bush fire earlier this year. My approach with the paint was rapid at first, as were my thoughts.

I often work in series and this, being no exception, is a follow up from an earlier one which I needed to leave for fear of overworking it. Most often, I need a sort of incubation period, after which I return to the work to assess it for changes or corrections. I was desperate to keep the freshness so I quickly photographed and varnished it to avoid any “tidying up” that I am so often succumb to.

My brother is a proud keeper of the land, and I knew that he would see this as part of its evolution. And with that, a new beauty would emerge.”