The title of this show is fun and colourful, but it also has a more meaningful side in that it speaks to a rich history of Utopian Art.
Artists, philopsophers and writers have always been in the business of imagining better worlds. From art in religious traditions, both Eastern and Western, to the whole history of Modernism, which could be described as a Utopian project.
‘Subtropic’ refers to the surrounds of Northern NSW and Southern Queensland. The paintings explore the subtropical coast as it exists in my mind, memory and hopes. They take inspiration from the places themselves, but also from imagination. I am potentially making the subject brighter and warmer, than it is in real life, but also trying to capture something of how it can actually feel when you are there on a good day.
The works explore painting as world making. They are creations of places I want to be in, where nature is thriving and also appreciated and cared for by us. Somewhere we can potentially feel nourished and connected.
This exhibition at OneB gallery at M|arts in Murwillumbah, explores the idea of a ‘sit spot’. This is an ancient nature connection practice of sitting for fifteen minutes or more in the one natural place and noticing the surroundings. It is very beneficial for health and wellbeing. The coastline on the Tweed has some amazing ‘sit spots’. As well as looking out into the blue expanse of ocean and sky, we also can feel the restorative energy from the life-filled coastal bush areas. These dreamlike imaginative seascapes and empathic botanical paintings try to capture the feeling of this kind of experience.
If we have time to get there, the coast can really nourish and restore us. The coast cares for us when we visit and the exhibition also looks at how people care for the coast in return. There is an acknowledgment of the many thousands of years of care that has been given to the coastline by people in the Northern rivers. Despite the contemporary challenges our coastline faces, this care continues today with First Nations custodians, Coast care groups, Councils and other individuals and community groups looking after and restoring our coast. The exhibition pays homage to this reciprocal care.
Judy has exhibited widely in Australia, and her work is in many collections here and overseas. You might have also seen her work on some of the street art projects in Murwillumbah. She is currently represented by Anthea Polson Art in Queensland.
The exhibition is on at One B gallery at the front of the M|arts Precinct in Murwillumbah, at 1 Brisbane St, from August 28 – Sept 23. The opening event is on Friday 1st September. 5.30 to 7.30pm.
A madrigal is a song, performed a cappella where five or more singers, sing different notes at the same time to create a lyrical whole. This poetic style of music often uses word-painting, a musical technique based on storytelling that layers the melody and tonality to the lyrics.
For the last year Amelia, Belinda, Helle, Judy and Kath have met to talk about their art practices, the art world, philosophy, ideas and life in general. The meetings provide friendship, solidarity, encouragement, and support and help to better navigate the challenging and often solitary life of a practising artist living in a regional area.
This exhibition, from the artists’ separate catalogues, is a representation of their voices uniting as a whole. This union of work reflects the weaving of ideas through conversations and discussions over many months.
Judy Oakenfull’s inaugural exhibition at Anthea Polson Art conveys a deep engagement with the natural world. She describes its coastlines and native flora as the ‘protagonists’ in her paintings. “There seems to be something within that draws us towards the ‘untamed’ coast,” Oakenfull imparts. “My work explores this yearning and aims to capture something of the calming, grounded feeling we derive from being at the ocean’s edge.”
The Murwillumbah-based artist relates that the Wild Coast paintings evolved from an earlier series of botanical works depicting various species of Australian banksia plants and flowers. “Following an exhibition of them at the Tweed Regional Gallery in 2019, I began to focus on the banksia varieties local to Northern NSW and South East Queensland. As these plants are generally found in coastal regimes, it became a logical step to include their surrounds in my current paintings,” Oakenfull explains. “Initially, this took the form of ocean glimpses though banksia leaves, but then expanded to portray the seascape beyond. Other types of coastal foliage were introduced and the ocean itself became a main component.”
Layers of oil paint across the canvases express Oakenfull’s experience of seaside environs. “I appreciate the meditative essence of this medium,” she muses. “Painting allows the time and space to grow a type of intimacy with the subject. It is a meeting of observed components and one’s inner self.” Oakenfull tells that visual interconnections developed between the ocean and the flora she was depicting. “The blue of the sea and the yellows of the flowers are almost complimentary colours, each one intensifying the other and giving resonance to the paintings. Vegetation and panorama are equally important aspects in the works, neither one is the dominant element.”
A thoroughly contemporary approach to the seascape genre is evidenced in her carefully balanced colours and subtly geometricised forms. Imagined topographical features are often included for compositional fulfilment. Sweeping crescent shapes invest several of the paintings, Paradisiacal Yearnings being a prime example. Here the shoreline’s distinctive arc correlates with the overt curvature of grassy landforms and distant hill. The positioning of pandanus and banksia trees encourages the viewer’s eye to circle the work and find immersion amidst the horizon’s shimmering light.
Oceanic Inflorescence has a similar contemplative ambience. Warm-toned crescents band the sky above the headland. Round hillocks harmoniously grace the foreground and counterpoise the horizontality of sea and small, ochre strip of sand. Prominent yellow banksia flowers stretch up in seeming salutation. It is a consummate composition emanating a sense of wholeness and integration.
In part, Oakenfull credits her remarkable facility of synthesizing landscape and botanical detail to the couple of years she spent in Japan after completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at VCA. “There I became well acquainted with traditional and contemporary Japanese aesthetics and pictorial devices. Ukiyo-e artists, such as Hokusai and Hiroshige, were of particular inspiration.” European Post-Impressionists are also cited as having influenced her art making with their unconventional and imaginative responses to the vistas they observed.
“During current times, the wild coast is ever more important in its offering of a spacious and restorative respite from crowded cities and busy lives,” Oakenfull opines. “I feel that as a society, we are undergoing a cultural shift towards a greater respect for nature and the environment. Acknowledgement of a coastal site’s history and pertinent reclamation are now also in evidence. I hope my work can reflect and celebrate this change.”
This month I am organising a group painting exhibition at The Field, Artist run space at M-arts in Murwillumbah. This is an exhibition of fabulous observational painters from the region, focusing on Still life, interiors, yard scenes and local views. The exhibition celebrated the way painting can elevate the ordinary with relevance to lockdown experiences and the ordinariness of home.
Participating painters are Tamsin Ainslie, Phil Barron, Narelle Bretherton, Sharon Mcillwain, Andrew Hmelnitsky, Trish Tait, Jenny Sayer and myself.
The Field is at Studio 4 in the M|Arts Precinct. Crn Proudfoots lane and Brisbane St Murwillumbah.
Exhibition hours are Weds – Fri 10 – 5 and Sat & Sun 10 – 1.
I will be exhibiting some oil paintings of gumnuts found on the footpath outside my house.
So thrilled to exhibit some flower paintings at this incredible regional gallery! Exhibiting at the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Centre, Murwillumbah, NSW until 3 May 2020.
Drop in and draw a Banksia Workshop Sunday 1st March 2020
As Banksias become a major feature in my painting, I realised a trip to South Western WA would be required. Of 122 species of Banksias and Dyandras, WA has all but 14. I looked at airfares to Perth a lot, but never went through with a purchase. Having never been to WA before, I had mythologised the landscape and the flora in my mind and getting the plane didn’t quite seem to cut it in my imagination. There was also the expense of accommodation to consider and the challenge of making artwork on the road.
In the end a 1996 Diesel VW tranporter was the answer, and with my trusty little terrier companion I set off into the outback. There was fear. There was caution being thrown to wind. There were a few hiccups at the start, but all up, the road journey to WA was as fabulous as I thought it would be. I loved the changing climate from the East coast the West. I loved driving via Wilcania and Broken Hill in NSW in spring through incredible light rain with wildflowers lining the sides of the highway. I loved getting in the ‘zone’ driving on the Nullabor, after a few hours of driving where it became quite mediative and dreamy. I loved the openness and the expanse. I loved the strong orange red soil colour contrasted with the green grey tones of saltbush. I loved the eucalypts of the Great Western Woodland, after passing the WA border. And I loved that thrill of each movement forward being into a relative unknown, travelling relatively slowly to a places I had never been before.
Judy Oakenfull Art 