During my three month residency at The Shepparton Art Museum, In the lead up to their ‘Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso’ exhibition, I was drawn to researching and considering the masters that would soon haunt the museum.
With a focus on impressionism and what followed, I considered light, mark making, colour and gesture whilst exploring the surrounding bushland and waterways of Shepparton Art Museum.
The collection is called ‘holding echos’, which speaks to the reflections in the water and on the metal surfaces I chose to represent these reflections. In an attempt to reveal the subtle changes of autumn in this sprawling place.
In this country Autumnal changes are subtle not dramatic, as a place with few deciduous trees, the quiet time when days inch shorter and the pallet grows cooler. There is a magic in the light, I feel the changes in the wind, and the sun shifting each day.
The reflections of light in the gum leaves, moving water, reeds, unique insects and birdlife. I sit in the sun and let the light distort my view. Like the impressionists I admire and our First Peoples, the first artists in this country, I use quick approaches to study the landscape and offer the feelings of these places rather than true representations.
Written by Kate McKenzie Lewis
