'Autumnal Dreamscapes' Exhibition. Inside the Process
The first seeds of my ‘Autumnal Dreamscapes’ exhibition were sewn in- you guessed it- Autumn. Every year I find myself enamoured and obsessed with the beauty of the season and this year was no different. As I witnessed the glorious change in colour, I began to delve deeply into the palette and experiment with colour and forms that evoked the feel of my favourite season.
My first explorations were on a variety of substrates and ended up in two lovely little artist books bound in craft paper. These were such a joy to make and influenced the direction of the work for the ‘Autumnal Dreamscapes’ exhibition greatly.
As I continued my explorations through sketchbooks and watercolour works on paper, I found myself very drawn to the brown craft paper and earthy feel that it brought to he paintings. It led me to start exploring the idea of autumnal tress and landscapes, particularly poplars that I remember from my childhood going up in N.E Victoria.
I started making mono prints on acid free craft paper; cutting out the interesting shapes that emerged and collaging these into works. I decided to experiment with painting acrylic on raw linen to explore this concept of painting on a natural substrate more deeply. I absolutely love the combination of earthy raw linen with these autumn colours. I bought an old role of linen from my mate Steph that she wasn’t using anymore and started to play.
As I journeyed deeper into this approach, I found myself recalling the alpine regions of my youth, Bright and Porepunkah, where I would frequently journey with my parents, famed for its display of autumn colour. This area is surrounded by pine plantations with mountains rising behind. I have stark memories of driving past these pine plantations that would, all of a sudden, abruptly end, leaving ravaged land in the wake of the harvested trees.
It was a powerful reminder that behind the beauty of the landscape with these introduced species of trees, lies a story of ecological devastation. Many of the abstract landscape works of this exhibition examine the tension between this beauty and also the environmental impact of turning the Australian landscape into something that looked like Europe and was a source of harvested timber.
The result of following this thread is that over half of the ‘Autumnal Dreamscapes’ exhibition comprises these abstracted landscapes. Many of the larger works feature mountains rising behind the autumn trees. Rendered in a beautiful denim tone of blue, the watery pigment sinks peacefully into the back of the linen fibre and the effect of the distant mountains overlayed in trees is magical to me. I then collaged many of the works with abstract mono prints of trees and treescapes. The overall effect is a new direction in my work that I think I will be unpacking for years to come. I really hope that you enjoy them too.
The second body of work that comprises ‘Autumnal Dreamscapes’ are probably more familiar to you. They are botanical based and explore the magic of autumn in my garden. In particular, I wanted to explore that divine quality of light that happens at ‘Golden Hour’, that moment just before dusk in autumn when everything is aglow.
There are works exploring roses in that final fish of flowering as the progress toward the dormant season. I also wanted to explore the gorgeous forms of a garden gone to seed, so there are many seed heads, pods, dandelion heads and other botanical forms particular to autumn that appear at the end of the flowering cycle.
I’ve long been obsessed with grasses, pods, and seed heads and have a rather massive collection of samples in my studio, so this exhibition was a beautiful opportunity to explore these in more detail throughout the botanical paintings.
One of the aspects I enjoyed most was creating hand-cut stencils made from silhouettes and shadows of botanical samples. Stencils are found in many of these works, often in muted metallic bronze and copper, intermixed with more traditionally painted botanicals. The effect of light reflecting off the painting at different angles evokes the magical impression of sunlight shining through a plant at golden hour, a moment that I really wish I could bottle. These paintings, I guess, are my attempt to do so!
The overall effect of the botanical paintings is one of magical peace and calm. The autumnal palette is at once uplifting and incredibly soothing. This palette of colour runs through both bodies of work, so the overall effect of them all hanging together in an exhibition space is harmonious yet surprising.
I hope that you get a chance to come down to the Old Butcher’s Shop Gallery here in Ballarat to take a look. It’s at 112 Seymour Street, Soldiers Hill, Ballarat and I’ll be in the gallery every weekend afternoon throughout November 2022.
If you’d like all those details in one, lovely little email, then be sure to sign up at this link and receive a personal invitation.
And if you can’t make it down, I hope that you you enjoyed getting an inside look at the works here! Be sure to see them over in the shoppable exhibition catalogue too.
Photos courtesy of @hergoldenpoint