The Matriarchs Margaret Ellen Turner
The Matriarchs Painting is akin to growing a garden. It can’t be pushed or pulled. I bring my aesthetic skill set to the paint and canvas, working hard to disrupt my desire to control so I can sustain as long as possible that sensation of exploring the “road less-travelled”. Through blind alleys, detours, accidents and serendipity, a painting emerges, in its own time and according to its own nature. My task is to be committed, patient and fearless. Only when it is finished and enters the broader social context does meaning matter and its exploration can begin. I see vessels and a moon, symbols long associated with women. I think how women have laboured, even slaved for and loved this country, through the aeons. Their joys, hopes and resilience are the backbone on which this land has been shaped and survives. Yet we still struggle to give women the respect they’re due.
Cover: Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 681, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 675, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 688, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 689, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 687, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 686, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 683, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 685, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
The Painting Space, Moffat Beach.
Margaret Ellen Turner, The Matriarchs No 684, Acrylic on Canvas, 140 cm h x 100 cm w
Margaret Ellen Turner has an extensive exhibition profile in national and international, private, public and institutional galleries. She has won significant art awards and is represented in private collections. She trained as a sculptor in the ‘80’s and now paints. She says that, while they exist on a flat surface the works are still sculptures - concerned with scale and depth. She has produced 4 major solo painting exhibitions in the last 15 years, been a finalist in numerous art awards including the Sunshine Coast Art Prize, and in 2013 won the Kenilworth Painting Prize. She also mentors fledgling artists.
Watch the creative process video.
Web: margaret-turner.com.au Email: mturner@caloundra.net Cool Art Picture Framing Gallery 5/43 Access Crescent Coolum Beach Qld 4573 Opening hours: 9-5 Tues - Fri, 9-2 Mon and Sat (+617) 5471 7366 art@coolartgallery.com.au www.coolartgallery.com.au