U N K N O W N D E S T I N AT I O N S K YM BA RR E T T
UNKNOWN DESTINATIONS Kym Barrett 16 May - 11 June, 2022
Official opening: Saturday 21st May, 4-6 pm Official speaker: Kevin Wilson
Viewing times Tues-Fri 9-5 Mon & Sat 9-2 5/43 Access Crescent Coolum Beach, QLD 4573 T: (07) 5471 7366 E: art@coolartgallery.com.au W: www.coolartgallery.com.au
“A beginning is very innocent. It is a setting of something in motion, the destination of which remains a secret to all except itself.” - John O’Donohue
This is as much a metaphor for life as it is for a painting. Life is always radically uncertain and especially so, during the past couple of Covid years. My art practice has become a spiritual practicethe focused process of making paintings is a long slow path to becoming my true self. It is a teacher. Learning to trust, surrender control, and be comfortable with uncertainty. Allowing things to unfold. Listening, following and acting from my deepest self.
This new series of work reflects the mysterious process of its becoming. Embracing the unexpected, letting go of preciousness and arriving at something that could never have been planned. The work is always tethered to the visible landscape. My only intention at the beginning is to hold in harmony and balance, the tension of opposites – Aliveness AND Stillness, Clarity AND Mystery, Raw AND Ordered, Risk AND Calculation, Surface AND History. Not ‘either/or’ but ‘both/ and’. Echoing my desire to keep in balance, all the contradictions, paradoxes, ups and downs, sorrows and joys of ordinary human existence.
- Words courtesy of the artist
BIOGRAPHY Kym Barrett is an Australian painter living and working in the south-east Queensland bushland. She has had 18 solo exhibitions to date and her work is contained in numerous private and public collections in Australia and internationally. Barrett won the Flying Arts Alliance Queensland Regional Arts Awards in 2021. An essay about her work and processes appears in the current ARTIST PROFILE Magazine #58, Autumn 2022. Her work appears in the comprehensive international publication, COLD WAX MEDIUM: Techniques, Concepts and Conversations by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin. Kym graduated in Fine Arts (painting and drawing) from Brisbane College of Art (now QCA) in 1975.
A Morning of Innocent Beginning 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 93 x 123 cm, framed in oak $4500
Wending My Way Home 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 93 x 123 cm, framed in oak $4500
An Unknown Destination 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 93 x 123 cm, framed in oak $4500
I Stepped onto New Ground, O Delight 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 93 x 123 cm, framed in oak $4500
Secret Tabernacles 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 93 x 123 cm, framed in oak $4500
Into the West 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 55 x 94 cm, framed in oak $2000
ARTIST STATEMENT Barrett’s primary medium is oil paint mixed with cold wax medium, and combined drawing media on board or canvas. She enjoys the immediacy of en plein air drawing using charcoal and water media, which are later torn for collage and to create new compositions. These are sometimes starting points for the more developed paintings. Her approach is organic – a ‘listening and following’ the painting. It is a rhythm of building up and breaking down layers, a kind of archaeology. “ I try to stop just before the painting is finished (in my view, a little raw and ambiguous) for the viewer to perhaps complete the picture.”
The Solitude of Land 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 120 x 180 cm $5900
The Silence of Land 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 120 x 180 cm $5900
The Stillness of Land 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 120 x 180 cm $5900
Holding Hope and Sadness 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 62 x 77 cm, framed in oak $1900
Connemara Blue 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 82 x 82 cm, framed in oak $2500
Landscape of Mirrors 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 48 x 48 cm, framed in oak $1100
Genius Loci - creek 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 48 x 48 cm, framed in oak $1100
Water Sanctuary 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 48 x 48 cm, framed in oak $1100
Belonging 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 32 x 32 cm, framed in oak $790
Longing 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 32 x 32 cm, framed in oak $790
Come to the Water 2022 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on canvas 32 x 32 cm, framed in oak $790
Rambling in Thin Places 2018 Kym Barrett Charcoal, ink and gesso on canvas 90 x 90 cm $2800
By Coracle, Drifting 2018 Kym Barrett Charcoal, ink and gesso on canvas 120 x 120 cm $3800
Listening for the Whispers 2018 Kym Barrett Charcoal, ink and gesso on canvas 120 x 120 cm $3800
Remember When 2021 Kym Barrett Oils and cold wax medium on board 82 x 82 cm, framed in oak $2500
Published by CA Gallery Artwork Photography: Christine Hall, My PhotoMotion Portrait Photography: Charmaine Lyons Design: Erin Castle All artwork copyright to the artist