News
[Wall]flower
I’m thrilled to be part of this exhibition [Wall]flower showing from the 21st October 2021, with a talented group of makers at Geelong Art Space, which will coincide with Craft Victoria’s Craft Contemporary Festival as a satellite event to promote local artists and makers. The exhibition is curated by Katherine Marmaras.
I am exhibiting four works, a work on paper entitled Anemone Fantastica, and 3 small invented embroidery specimens from the Ecologica Fantastica Specimen series.
Anemone Fantastica from the Imaginary Science series is a slightly surreal, sci fi take on the floral pattern tradition in textile design.
Cheongju International Craft Competition 2021
My large-scale embroidery entitled ‘Amalgam’ was selected as a finalist and awarded an honourable mention in the craft section for the Cheongju International Craft Competition 2021 in Cheongju, Korea, showing from the 8th September until the 17th October. The exhibition consists of craft works made from metal, ceramics, wood lacquer, textile, and glass, or ‘works that attempt to expand the craft genre’ and have been chosen from artists around the world. It’s an absolutely beautiful exhibition, one that I’m proud to contribute to. The exhibition can be viewed here:
https://www.okcj.org/competition/#tab5Change
‘Amalgam’ 2019, is made using ink and embroidery techniques on linen, measuring approximately 140cm x 155cm
Amalgam presents embroidery as a drawing technique, featuring backstitch, split stitch and straight stitch. The work is influenced by aspects of printmaking, painting and textiles and reflects my training in these areas. Amalgam makes use of traditional craft practices in a contemporary context, connecting tradition with innovation.
Imaginary Science exhibition at Gallerysmith Project Space
Imaginary Science uses botanical, anatomical and cellular imagery, reclaiming historically feminine practices like embroidery and watercolour painting. Exploring the space between art and craft, and the use of intensive hand-made processes, the embroideries and works on paper use hybrid forms to articulate an imaginary science. Imagined life forms are created from the influence of Australian and European flora, producing hybrid, biomorphic shapes that are joined together through repetition and pattern. The work posits about the environment and climate change by exploring hybridity of flora and looking at botanicals on a cellular level. This body of work responds to liminal spaces between art and craft and art and science; looking to these influences to explore tactility and materiality.
The textile work utilises embroidery as a drawing technique, featuring backstitch, French knots, split stitch, brick stitch, turkey rug stitch, rope stitch and crochet. Colours are mixed in dye and painted onto the fabric, and many of the yarns are hand dyed. The influence of fashion is played out through the techniques, colour palette and tactility of the materials, referencing embroidery samplers and pattern. Colour relationships are often tonal with the use of painterly techniques, under scored by a descriptive drawing practice.
Textiles make use of traditional craft practices in a contemporary context, referencing the embroidery hoop and the petri dish. The work is influenced by aspects of printmaking, painting and textiles and reflects the artists’ training in these areas.
This exhibition is supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants
Fungi x Botanica
Fungi Pattern Landscape 03, 20cm diameter, ink, watercolour and embroidery on paper, 2021
I am excited to be exhibiting some works on paper as part of the Fungi x Botanica exhibition at Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
Saturday 24 April - Sunday 9 May, 10 AM - 4 PM, 2021. Open daily. Free entry.
Silk Scarf Collection
Nucleus, from the Imaginary Science Collection 100% silk crepe de chine, 42cm x 145cm
I’m super excited to introduce Imaginary Science, a collection of silk scarves based on work from my art practice that have been re-imagined as textile designs. The scarves are digitally printed onto silk crepe de chine and are designed, printed and hemmed in Australia. The designs are a celebration of the imagination and nature, and reflect a love of painting, drawing and pattern. This collection of scarves is an extension of my art practice, a way of bringing art and a love of drawing and painting into an everyday item; art that can be worn and cherished.
International KOGEI Award in Toyama, Japan
Synthesis has been selected as a finalist in the International KOGEI Award in Toyama, Japan, 2021. Synthesis is a large-scale painting/embroidery on linen. The subject matter is based on botanical and anatomical imagery and diagrammatic cellular drawings, painted and stitched onto fabric. The exhibition is at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design from 25 February till 4th April 2021 and showcases about 120 works from art/craft practitioners from 62 countries. This exhibition is about the intersection of traditional craft practices and contemporary innovation, something that I feel very passionate about! Over the years I have studied painting, printmaking and textiles and bring traditional mediums like embroidery and dye techniques into my practice. This piece went on a long journey to get to Japan and involved me sourcing an extra long mailing tube (155cm long!) to transport the work.
Synthesis is made using hand painted dye and embroidery techniques on linen, measuring approximately 140cm x 140cm.
The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize in Landscape Painting 2020
Cellular Landscape 2020, watercolour and ink on paper, 114cm x 152cm
Detail image, Cellular Landscape 2020, watercolour and ink on paper, 114cm x 152cm
My work Cellular Landscape has been selected as a finalist in The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize in Landscape Painting which will be held at Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University from 26 November - 12 December 2020. This is particularly exciting for me as I studied undergrad and Honours at QCA and have many fond memories of my time there!
Lester Prize Semi Finalist 2020
Botanical Self Portrait, ink and watercolour on paper, 50cm x 41cm, 2020.
I’m happy to share that this work on paper, Botanical Self-Portrait has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Lester Prize, Salon and will be shown in a digital exhibition in Perth in November 2020.
Botanical Self Portrait explores the space between portraiture and ornamentation. Reclaiming historically feminine practices like textiles and watercolour painting, this work uses pattern to convey intimacy through the use of detailed drawing techniques. Botanical Self Portrait is part of a wider body of work that looks to the intersection of art and craft and how these practices relate to traditional notions of femininity. Botanical Self Portrait references pattern in textile practices, as well as painting, interweaving the artists’ training in printmaking, textiles and painting. Pattern is created from the influence of Australian and European flora, producing hybrid and abstract shapes that are joined together through repetition and pattern. The decorative and the personal overlap in this work on paper, combining painterly watercolour techniques with detailed ink drawing.
Swan Hill Print and Drawing Award
Detail image of Stem, ink and watercolour on watercolour paper
Stem, ink and watercolour on watercolour paper
Stem has been selected as a finalist for the 2020 Swan Hill Print and Drawing Award.
Stem is a descriptive drawing, using the influence of Australian and European flora to create hybrid forms that articulate an imaginary science. Depicting wildflowers and weeds that are commingled into an imaginative botanical, Stem references scientific illustration and is influenced by aspects of printmaking, textiles and pattern.
NG Art Creative Residency
Works in progress in the studio at Eygalières
The farmhouse and residency, NG Art Creative Residency
Residency in France, late 2019
I was Highly commended for the NG Art Creative Residency Prize, Eygalières, France and awarded a supported place in the residency for two weeks during late November, early December 2019. I was sharing the studio with three other artists. The residency at Mas des Pelerins offered me the space and setting to relax and calm the mind; the perfect opportunity for making artwork away from everyday life. As a result I produced meditative drawings inspired by the Alpilles mountain range and beauty of the region, which was absolutely charming and unforgettable.