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Artist Statement GOAL
To continue to examine the interior and exterior landscape, evoking movement through the manipulation of materials, and paint and colour. I do not want to be restricted in the media I use to explore my artistic senses. So for example, even though mosaic work is considered unfashionable, and some ever consider it less than art, it is vital and strong tool to express my view of the world, which is what I am trying to do. Using a range of medium and finding my emotional expression in a range of visions from hand pulled prints to my visions of the land and sea, I hope that the viewer will be excited by and feel the journey that I have taken
RECENT WORK From Paintings to Prints
My paintings speak of the land and the visions that I see when confronted with its beauty from the air. I wanted to take a journey through the challenges that our land faced both past and present with my works on paper. I began looking at 4 of my paintings (Sanctuary, Restrained Glory, Ghosts & Fantastic Journey) and worked towards giving them a voice in print.
A vision of what we have done to the land, what we remove and what we replace it with. There is a flow and shift that happens as the land is tilled for crops the reduction of the native fauna to give more space to how we demand that the land be used. So in the end we have only small sanctuaries for its former glory, now replaced with houses and agriculture, this becomes the new language of the land as it lays over what we no longer see as useful. We sometimes dismiss what the land has given us, like the wonderful native daisies, they seem to be transient in our minds as we pass through the land.
Our land now has a new language, a voice of what we insist that the only thing it can be is used for our purposes. We no longer see its inherent beauty.
I have tried to show echo's of its once great language (a wild beauty) under and beside its new language regulated and restrictive from above, yet flowing and ribbon like on the horizon.
MOSAICS Translating some of my more abstract paintings into a new medium means that they are now finding a voice in Mosaics. This medium has potential to explore the 3 dimensional illusion on a 2 dimensional plane using the medium to create shifts in light and structure.
Thoughts on the Female Artist
One day seven years ago I found myself saying to myself–I can’t live where I want to–I can’t go where I want to go–I can’t do what I want to–I can’t even say what I want to–...I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to. Georgia O’Keeffe, 1923
The question has been asked time and time again, "Why has history produced no great women painters?" Great paintings by women artists do exist, scattered throughout museums world wide, many of which are hung or held in permanent storage. Little effort has been made to produce complete catalogues of works by women artists and seldom, if ever, are collections of works by a single artist ever featured in a retrospective showing. Perhaps the true questions need to be addressed. If one great painting by a woman artist is found, where is the rest of her work? - and - If a woman painter achieved honours and recognition in her own time, commensurate with her male contemporaries, why is her name still neglected and forgotten today?
My own life has been fortunate. I was born in Australia in the second half of the 20th century, and I found paid work that gave me enough free time for me to take lessons in art as well as the time to paint. Like many modern women I had no regular partner for whom I had to wash and clean, and so I could largely please myself about the way I lived my artistic and personal life. My artistic journey took me through a variety of forms of landscape painting as my vision of our country matured as I traveled. I began to experiment with the patterns and forms our country showed, often resembling abstract paintings when viewed from above. A journey to central Australia confirmed my love of the austere clarity and rich reds of the desert. So too the colours and contours of Lake Menindie when seen from 17,000 feet told a story of our land which for a time transcended our personal cares and placed our struggles into perspective. I found the creation of these paintings intriguing and satisfying as well as revealing. I hope that you will also gain pleasure or insight from these works.
Lea Kannar 2005 |
