FRISSON - Works on paper

Together Gouache on paper 30 x 21 cm


Sharing The Spaces Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm

Frisson Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm

The above three works on paper will be in my exhibition FRISSON opening 18 March. I will have more works on paper including others of this 21 x 30 cm size and larger works 30 x 42 cm.

The larger works on paper will be from my series on water, which I have written about before on my BLOG. I will have some framed and some unframed works on paper. The above three will be framed with a very nice pale coloured square cut timber frame.

The bottom painting is called 'Frisson' and, whilst it is a small painting, it is an important one for me. It's important because it was one of the first paintings I did where I was fully conscious of wanting to paint something that 'spoke' of a frisson. I wanted to create something which purposefully expressed an instant...a nanosecond... akin to that instant just before a romantic kiss or just as an insight shifts your world view or just as an Ah Ha ripples through your body. All these examples of what I would call a frisson, are intimate and full of feeling. They are bigger than the actual instant, because time seems to stand still and when time stands still, distance collapses. I imagine travelling in a vortex where perspective is supended because the movement of the vortex's energy is in none and all possible directions at once. Isn't imagination wonderful!

As you can see, the three paintings above all depict my much loved transcultural/religious tree of life. So, what is the tree's history with me and my art.

TREE OF LIFE

I started using the tree-of-life in the early 1990s when I was having my babies. At that stage the tree-of-life was a very personal and understandable expression of the experience of creating and giving new life. My maternal grandmother died aged 92 only 6 weeks before my first daughter was born. These events get you thinking about life in all its glory. As time went on the tree-of-life expanded into expressions of extended familial links over time. This was still a personal reflection though. However, my experience exhibiting in Abu Dhabi in 2005 was an Ah Ha! The conversations I had with people from all over the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe revealed to me that my expression of the tree-of-life resonated across cultures and religions. The archetypal symbol had revealed its potency to transcend time and 'speak' to us in the twenty first century. I have come to believe that the agelessness of the archetype is the core of this potency.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

FRISSON

noun: a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill.

GRAYDON GALLERY 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

Ph: 61 7 32542325 [druing exhibition]

EXHIBITION DATES Tuesday 16- Sunday 28 March

OPEN DAILY 10 am - 6 pm [Tuesday 16 from 1-6 pm]

OPENING Thursday March 18 5.30-8pm

To be opened by Art Historian Dr. Christine Dauber.