A 1997 graduate of the National Art School, Inga Dalrymple is a Sydney-based painter, based on Gadigal land, whose work transcribes an unfolding dialogue with memory through materiality and method.
This September, we are delighted to present a Limited Release of paintings by Inga Dalrymple.
Otomys: So many of your works look out through a window, such as Blue Window with Two Trees and Winter Window. How does painting the landscape through a frame rather than standing within it change your perspective?
Inga Dalrymple: In the same way that I like to paint vessels, cups and vases, I use the frame as both a device and a motif. I am drawn to the idea of a container, or containment - here is a small container of a memory, an impression of a place, or something once seen. The frame also gives me an armature, a kind of scaffold to hang the paint on.
There's nothing new about making a painting about windows; so many artists have done it beautifully, my favourite being Lois Dodd. For me, I think the frame creates a kind of stage or tableau - a place to begin. But I never really know what the frame will contain until I'm there, making decisions in response to each brushstroke, shape and colour. It isn't necessarily a landscape I'm trying to paint, but rather a view into or out of another place. That place may not always make complete sense, but it should always be intriguing. Sometimes the frame becomes a container within the painting, and I like that there can be a kind of double reading: is it a window, a frame, a stage, or a vessel? Perhaps it is all of these things at once.
Otomys: Titles like All As One on the Night Walk and Warm Facade read almost like fragments of thought rather than descriptions. Do the titles come before, during, or after the painting?
Inga Dalrymple: Mostly after, sometimes during. Sometimes, when I'm stuck for a title, I'll use a lyric from the song I was listening to when I finished the painting. I also like using phrases from poems, which I might rearrange, or simply words that intrigue me because they look beautiful when written.
Lately, though, my titles have become quite literal. I quite like the directness of a title that simply says what the work is depicting - or at least what I think it is depicting. There's something appealing about not overcomplicating it. Sometimes the painting has already done all the mysterious work, and the title can just tell you what you're looking at.
Otomys: Looking Due East and Due East II share a title and a view. Was that one sitting split in two, or a place you kept returning to?
Inga Dalrymple: Both are the same view. I painted these in one sitting on the sun-bathed deck at The Corridor project in Cowra. I liked the way the shadows kept moving on the hillside and the way the clouds changed each time I made a brushstroke and looked up again. Due East refers to the direction I was looking towards, and I wondered what was beyond.
Otomys: Many of these works are intimate in scale. Does size of the canvas change how far you're willing to let a piece move into abstraction?
Inga Dalrymple: Yes, definitely. I think scale changes the way I look and, in turn, the way the painting develops. When a work is small, I'm often more observational. There's something intimate about the scale that allows me to notice quite specific things - a particular shape, a bit of light, the relationship between a tree and a building, or some small detail that caught my attention.
As the paintings get larger, I tend to become less concerned with those specifics and more interested in the larger shapes and relationships within the picture. The painting can move further away from describing a particular place and towards something more constructed or imagined. I think the larger the painting becomes, the more I need to think about its architecture - how the shapes hold together, where the spaces open up and where they need to rest.
So perhaps the small works are closer to looking, while the larger works are more about responding to what I've seen. I don't consciously set out to make one more abstract than another, though. It seems to happen through the process of painting and through what the scale asks of me.
Otomys: You were recently on Art Wank, the podcast hosted by Julie Nicholson and Fiona Verity. How does talking with other artists impact practice when you return to the studio?
Inga Dalrymple: I don't think we work in isolated vacuums, so talking with other artists is really important to me. It doesn't always have to be profound or directly related to the work. Sometimes it's simply the reassurance of talking to someone who understands what it's like to be in the studio, trying to solve the same kinds of problems.
I think the best conversations make you feel part of a community, and there's something very validating about realising that the things I can become completely consumed by in the studio - whether a painting is working, where to take it next, or why something suddenly feels wrong - are actually quite universal. You leave a conversation feeling a little less alone in it, and I think that inevitably changes how you return to the studio.
You may view Inga Dalrymple's work at Otomys between 10am-5pm Tuesday to Friday, or by appointment on Saturdays and Mondays.
