Flaming Summer—Full Image

Drawing, 116 x 79 cm

This artwork was selected as finalist in the Paul Guest Drawing Prize. The art exhibition to be seen at the Bendigo Art Gallery, June to September 2018.

Please see photos of myself, my artwork “Flaming Summer” and the art show opening of the finalist in the ‘news’ section.

One of the strongest concepts in my recent arts practice is serial repetition, allowing a movement beyond simple representation into an artistic enquiry. My series “Efflorescence” (a sub series of “Leaves of Life”) is inspired by traditional botanical drawings and catalogues the flora in my environment.

Repeating the image of the chosen plant applies the idea of Gertrude Stein that “a rose is a rose is a rose…” It also reveals more of the object’s essence, reducing the distance between me—the subject, and the object. We both remain the same, yet change simultaneously—based at this point on another idea from Gertrude Stein: that repetition does not produce exactitude.

I expand my theme by stepping into an almost abandoned cultural space and include handwriting. As reflections and ideas surface, I note them down in cursive handwriting, descriptive and associative, without order or direction, in my two daily languages, German and English.

This drawing shows the flowers of the Flame Tree, native to the East Coast of Australia but cultivated all over the world (including, of course, Western Australia, where I live). The clouds of scarlet red in the West Australian spring is a feast for my eyes.