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.

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.