While 2020 has been a bit still, a bit quiet, many of us are still beavering away, keeping occupied, keeping safe.
Views of a Summer on Edge Mixed media on 8 10x10cm canvases 10 x 100 cm Finalist: Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery 2020 SOLDA Summer on Edge Mixed media on 5 10x10cm canvases 10 x 60 cm Finalist: Gosford Art Prize 2020Ravaged Land mixed media and collage on canvas 91 x 122 cm Finalist: Fisher’s Ghost Contemporary Art Award 2020Lost Summer mixed media on board 13 x 23 cmEerie Coast mixed media on board 13 x 23 cm SOLDBeach Holiday mixed media on board 13 x 23 cmShifting Ground Oil and acrylic on canvas 91 x 120cm
So, now I am revisiting works from which I will pick up threads to develop new works.
I loved, and still do, love these.
Woolshed mixed media on canvas 100 x 75 cm SOLD Corner Mixed media on canvas 73 x 122 cm SOLDRhythm in Light at Kinchega (diptych) Wooden stretcher wedges on gator board 56 x 46 and 56 x 56 cm SOLDFound Sounds Mixed media on Khadi paper on Arches paper 155 x 110 cmNight Noises graphite on Arches paper 100 x 230 cm Finalist: 33rd Alice Prize, Alice Springs (2004)Silence and Memory oil and acrylic on canvas 120 x 60 cm SOLDSilence and Sadness acrylic and oil on canvas 120 x 60 cm SOLDLandscape for the Blind (diptych) mixed media on canvases 73 x 120 cmWalking with Thomas and Matisse (diptych) 240 x 150cm acrylic on canvas SOLD Finalist: Fisher’s Ghost Open, Campbelltown City Arts Centre 2012Road Trip West pastel on Whatmans paper 56 x 76 cm SOLDDesert Meeting (Margaret meets Agnes at Ernabella) oil on canvas 91 x 138 cm SOLD Finalist: Fisher’s Ghost Open, Campbelltown City Arts Centre 2013Beyond the Back Fence (diptych) acrylic on canvas 81 x 162 cm SOLD10pm oil and acrylic on canvas 120 x 240 cm SOLD Finalist: Fisher’s Ghost Open, Campbelltown City Arts Centre 2011Lament graphite and shellac on paper 56 x 76 cm SOLDNo Regrets Graphite and shellac on paper 56 x 76 cm SOLD Highly Commended: Lyn McCrea Drawing Award, Noosa Art Gallery, 2016Joy oil on canvas 110 x 80 cm SOLD
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.
Disenfranchised Grief charcoal and pastel on Hahnemuhle paper 122 x 80 cmRavaged Landscape Mixed media collage and oil stick on canvas 91 x 122 cmWhispering Stillness Watercolour on Hahnemuhle paper on canvas 102 x 76 cmAnd then came Covid Charcoal, pastel and gesso on Hahnemuhle paper 122 x 80 cmKnowing Charcoal and pastel on paper, scratched. 98 x 66 cmAngst Graphite on paper, collage, woven paper. 54 x 84 cmOld Man Look at your Life Pastel, graphite and collage on paper 72 x 46 cm Uncertainty Mixed media on canvas 50 x 50 cmApprehension Mixed media on canvas 50 x 50 cmTrepidation Mixed media on canvas 50 x 50 cmBush Fire Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 cm SOLD The Calm Oil and oil stick on canvas 91 x 122 cmDurras Reeds Remembered Acrylic and ink on canvas 30 x 40 cmLost Summer, a Grieving Process oil on canvas 61 x 76 cmRemembered Place with Red Sun Watercolour on BFK Rives paper on canvas 45 x 34 cm Remembered Place Watercolour on BFK Rives paper on canvas 45 x 34 cm Finalist: Kangaroo Valley Arts Festival, 2020Thoughts and Prayers oil on canvas 182 x 91 cm Finalist: Calleen Art Prize, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, 2020Terrible Beauty oil and acrylic on paper on canvas 76 x 76 cm SOLD
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.
My Brother’s Country is on Fire oil and acrylic on canvas 61 x 51 cm
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.
Pre-bushfire works, below, are in the summer exhibition at the Milk Factory Gallery, Bowral.
The Last Day of March 2019 acrylic and oil on canvas 91 x 91 cmthese 4 works are all oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm. Remembered WalkSOLD Burnt Out SOLD
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).
Dirt Tree Rock Water acrylic and oil on canvas 61 x 76 cm
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.
Apprehension, Uncertainty and Trepidation mixed media and collage on canvases 50 x 50 cm each
The recent bush fire season and its ramifications keep creeping into my work at the moment:
Embers oil on canvas 61 x 61 cm REPAINTED A Summer on Edge mixed media and collage 10 x 10 cm canvases
More …… Views from a Summer on Edge
Views of a Summer on Edge Mixed media and collage 9 10 x 10 cm canvases
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)
That Day’s Fire Painting acrylic, pastel, eggshells and collage on paper on canvas 36 x 28 cm
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.
Studio holding up well. The foliage has grown though.
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.
Moments of Silence (Night Noises, Summer Solstice) Graphite and collage on Arches paper 74x80cm
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.
My Brother’s Country is on Fire Oil and acrylic on canvas 61x51cm
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.”
I am very happy to be included in the Pirtek Still Life Art Award with Black Pot with 2 Lemons at Bowral Art Gallery and judged by Janine Coddington.
It is always fun to paint still life subjects and to manipulate them to however you like in order to make an interesting composition.
Black Pot with 2 Lemons 2019 Acrylic on canvas 76 x 102 cm
The same black pot and (different) lemons have been the subject of previous paintings and no doubt will continue to inspire me in the future.
Ode to a Lemon SOLD 2015 Oil and oil stick on canvas 91 x 182 cm Finalist: 2015 Emsla Eutick Still Life Art Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Art GalleryOde to the Lemon II SOLD 2016 Acrylic and oil stick on canvas 61 x 61 cmOde to the Lemon III SOLD 2016 Acrylic and oil stick on canvas 46 x 92 cm Finalist: 2016 Hornsby Art Prize SOLD
My exhibition, Distractions, is opening at 6pm Wednesday 12 June, at the fabulous purpose built contemporary art gallery, FORM Studio and Gallery, Queanbeyan.
It would be lovely to see you there and to share some wine with you.
Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10am – 4pm
Exhibition runs until 29 June 2019.
Please call in if you are in the hood. We would love to see you.
images of new work in the show:
I develop much of my work in the studio referencing my sketches,
photos and written descriptions which help
transport me to another place in my memory – back to places I have
travelled, known and experienced. It’s as if there is a delayed reaction
as if my thoughts need some sort of incubation time.
Recently I have turned to my immediate environment for subject matter where the sounds and my view of the mountain behind me are living, changing yet constant, sources of inspiration. I note the changes in light during different times of the day and the season. Dry crackle hum. The bush pings, the air stings, the kookaburras laugh.
Lush winter view of the foothills of Mount Gibraltar from my house
DISTRACTIONS is somewhat autobiographical where the paintings served as distractions to greater world events, and to more personal my-world events.
Nightfall, Full Moon, Morning 2018 – 19, oil on canvas 122 x 152cm UFPossum Light 2019 acrylic on canvas, 61 x 51cm $950 UFMy Brother’s Country is on Fire 2019 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm$950 UFParched 2019 acrylic on canvas 61 x 51cm $950 UFSticks and Stones 2019 acrylic on canvas 152 x 122cm UF SOLDLast Light 2019 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm $950 UFMountain Drought 2018 oil on linen 122 x 91cm $2600 Framed SOLDMorning Shadows 2019 oil on canvas 152 x 122cm UFKing’s Canyon Walk Remembered 2019 oil on canvas 30 x 30cm $600 Framed SOLDFowler’s Gap Creek Bed 2016 acrylic on board 31 x 30cm $600 FramedParched Evening 2019 oil on canvas 30 x 30cm $600 FramedBurnt Out 2019 oil on canvas 30 x 30cm $600 Framed SOLD Flowering Desert oil on board 30 x 30 cm SOLDLong Lazy Summer 2015-19 oil on canvas 170 x 240 $6500 UF SOLDLooking Back up the Gib 2018-19 oil on canvas 81 x81cm $1650 UF SOLDBush Backyard 2018-19 oil on canvas 122 x 76cm $2300 Framed SOLD
It is with great pleasure that I announce that my painting. “Rainy Sunday” was the WINNER of this year’s Wingecarribee Landscape Prize at Bowral Art Gallery. Many thanks to all the BDAS organisers and to Kerry McInnes, this year’s judge. Congratulations to all the other award recipients. It was a tough field so I feel grateful.
Rainy Sunday
2019 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
Judge’s comments: “Deceptively simple and surprisingly evocative of the movement and feeling of rain. Robyn has, with angled strokes and a limited palette, conveyed to us the sensibility of a languid Sunday looking out into a wet landscape. The darker tones in the descending marks not only suggest falling liquid but also serve to ground the painting into what could be an interior, and if so, into a possibility – into a story. this is a wondrous and masterful work.”