Artworks TAFE and earlier

The painting shown first was undertaken as part of a programme run by Maxine McKee at the Kyneton School of Arts in the early 1990s called Inner Journey. The imagery involved finding a way out into a scene, mine being at the roof line. The tiles were the finger tile seen in Mediterranean region, where I had travelled, and a well featured very strongly. The perspective was very difficult, being three point, and I am the dragonfly, only seen as a shadow.

This is an A1 size sheet of

watercolour paper with flat washes of watercolour.

The painting below is a small oil painting on board undertaken as part of an oil painting workshop with Mary Larnach Jones at the Jennings Street premises of KSA.

The painting to the right is called Urban Sprawl, 1992, and is Gouache on paper. It is in a triadic harmony and a medium was used with the paint. This is a large painting and comments on the swamping of our environment as we take up more land for development. This was inspired by the landscape on the way to Bacchus Marsh that I passed when going to visit my parents. Gradually more and more valleys were being engulfed by housing as the human parasites increased and spread.

Tafe: Diploma of Visual Arts

The initial painting follows a set theme given by the lecturers Stan Farley and Janet Goodchild Cuffley. A personal item was wrapped and rendered in oil paint. The object had to be oversize and the wrapping anthropomorphises the object. Ropes needed to be incorporated in some way and something else in the background should give a clue to the object. In my case the object was a handmade candle holder that relates to the flame in the window and the fire axe.

The theme I followed in my major in my final year at TAFE related to the marginalised members of our society and is a statement regarding the lack of concern in our modern world.

The painting with the dustbins is called Rich Pickings, 2007. It is painted in acrylic on canvas and is a statement about greed and excessive waste and the luxurious excess of our modern times.

Next is They don't see me, 2007, a quote from the Big Issue magazine that is sold on the street by homeless, or previously homeless persons. This painting is oil on canvas and was wiped with turps to give a rainy effect and was the winner of an oil painting prize at the Blackwood Art Show, 2009.

Below these are Grundy, 2007, oil on canvas, the largest of the four, which was chosen to hang in the Tertiary Art Award at the Phyllis Palmer Gallery, LaTrobe University, Bendigo, Victoria in 2007. The title refers to the name given by the children at the local primary school to the rubbish skip and implies a scenario, only too common in cities, of homeless youth, where they sleep and and the lifestyle choices that can be forced on them.

The painting of the kerbside is Not All That Glitters... and sets up a scenario for the viewer to interpret. There is something disturbing but we are not sure what as the colours and autumn leaves are attractive but on closer inspection sinister imagery could be revealed.

The final painting is Archway, 2007, oil on canvas and fairly obvious in its comparison of a destitute person sleeping rough while across the river the casino looms bright,

beckoning and rich.

Illustration

The pen and wash illustration of the man and dog was published in a book called Painted Words, 2006, to illustrate the story Perceptions by Fiona Kilgower. This book was was the second in the Painted Words series, and is an anthology of work by Professional Writing and Editing students at Bendigo Institute of Tafe, in collaboration with the Visual Arts students who illustrated the works.

The second illustration is from Painted Words 2005, and illustrated the story An Overseas Holiday in Africa, a non-fiction piece by Dr. Joe Reilly.