2018 Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize
'Viola at Sirius Cove'' oil on board, 33x33cm, 2018
Artist Statement: “Viola at Sirius Cove”
Viola was a likely candidate for a portrait as we often paint together en plein air and exhibit together as Stella Downer Fine Art. This work was developed from our time together painting in Sydney’s Siruis Cove. We were painting landscape works as part of a project and exhibition in December 2018 with Mosman Art Gallery for the Bush to Bay: Hinton and the Artist Camps. The Australian Impressionist movement developed at the artist camps of Curlew Camp, Sirius Cove in Mosman in the late 19th century along with the Impressionist movement in Heidelberg, Victoria. I found the wonderfully preserved bush around the camps takes on an almost mystical quality in the late afternoon light. Positioning Viola in this environment for a painting was a wonderful experience and I found the portrait became as much about the sitter as it did about the landscape she in standing in. The low sunlight of a winter afternoon, while fleeting, can illuminate large sections of the bush, colouring swathes of trees, forest floor and rocks.
Lismore Regional Gallery
Viola was a likely candidate for a portrait as we often paint together en plein air and exhibit together as Stella Downer Fine Art. This work was developed from our time together painting in Sydney’s Siruis Cove. We were painting landscape works as part of a project and exhibition in December 2018 with Mosman Art Gallery for the Bush to Bay: Hinton and the Artist Camps. The Australian Impressionist movement developed at the artist camps of Curlew Camp, Sirius Cove in Mosman in the late 19th century along with the Impressionist movement in Heidelberg, Victoria. I found the wonderfully preserved bush around the camps takes on an almost mystical quality in the late afternoon light. Positioning Viola in this environment for a painting was a wonderful experience and I found the portrait became as much about the sitter as it did about the landscape she in standing in. The low sunlight of a winter afternoon, while fleeting, can illuminate large sections of the bush, colouring swathes of trees, forest floor and rocks.
Lismore Regional Gallery