The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize in Landscape Painting 2017

ELAINE BERMINGHAM NATIONAL WATERCOLOUR PRIZE

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EXHIBITION 9-25 FEBRUARY 2017 WEBB GALLERY QUEENSLAND COLLEGE OF ART GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY SOUTH BANK, BRISBANE

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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

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BIOGRAPHY

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PRIZE WINNERS

10-17

PRIZE FINALISTS

19-55

LIST OF WORKS

56-57

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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INTRODUCTION ‘The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour

of landscape, whether as recognisable places

Prize in Landscape Painting’ is a unique triennial

and environments, urbanised spaces, or more

art prize that aims to celebrate excellence and

conceptually-driven contexts and locations.

innovation within the watercolour medium.

The watercolour medium requires great This non-acquisitive prize has a national

technical virtuosity and is of interest in

remit, being open to all Australian artists, with

the context of the studio-based program

selected finalists exhibited in the Webb Gallery,

of the Queensland College of Art,

located at Griffith University’s Queensland

where the cultivation of material skills in

College of Art at South Bank, Brisbane.

conjunction with conceptual rigour are at the heart of our teaching philosophy.

Watercolours appear in the earliest records of European exploration and settlement of Australia

The key objectives of this Prize are to

due to their portability and convenience, and

firstly, encourage and reward excellence

the medium lends itself to the recording of

in watercolour landscape painting;

fine detail, texture, light and shade. These

secondly, to encourage artists to take

qualities continue to attract artists to paint

up watercolour painting; and thirdly, to

in watercolour, but the ongoing relevance

protect and encourage appreciation of

of the medium for contemporary artists

quality watercolour landscape painting.

can also be seen in the ease at which it can capture lyricism, vibrancy and atmosphere.

The overall winner received a $20,000 cash prize generously donated by the late

The high calibre of the Prize finalists

Elaine Bermingham, whose passion for the

demonstrates that the medium remains of great

medium resulted in the Endowment of this

interest to contemporary Australian artists. We

prize, and who is celebrated here as a truly

also see many new approaches to landscape

remarkable and generous philanthropist.

and gain a sense of the ongoing renewal and reinvention of traditional genres. Many of these

Derrick Cherrie, QCA Director.

artists have made innovative interpretations

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ELAINE BERMINGHAM Elaine’s passion for the visual arts was the primary motivation for establishing ‘The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize in Landscape Panting’. After decades as a highly successful businesswoman and entrepreneur within Australia and abroad, Elaine remained closely connected with the South-East Queensland area, and in particular the Gold Coast. It is therefore fitting that the Bermingham Prize has been brought close by to Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art, located in South Bank, Brisbane.

Elaine honed her business skills in property development and rental car industries.

She spent thirty years in America where she formed her own corporation and developed successful travel programs between the USA and Australia.

Elaine remained a strong ambassador for the visual arts throughout her career, and viewed her pursuit as a benefactor as her own contribution to the arts community. She saw watercolour painting as an underrated artform, and was passionate about promoting the medium through the establishment of the Bermingham Prize.

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2017 WINNERS PRIZE WINNER

JACKSON SLATTERY HIGHLY COMMENDED

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SAM CRANSTOUN HIGHLY COMMENDED

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BELEM LETT

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ARTIST PROFILE / PRIZE WINNER

JACKSON SLATTERY

2017

Jackson Slattery’s practice attempts to walk the line between sincerity and indifference, both conceptually and formally. Trafalgar/Mile Ex is a

Trafalgar / Mile Ex 2016

diptych composed of an image from Slattery’s family home in Trafalgar, Gippsland (Victoria)

Watercolour on paper 90 x 210cm

and a found image of a squat in Montreal, Quebec (Canada). By collecting disparate and diverse images and meticulously reconstructing them, Slattery alludes to a narrative of events that is concerned as much with fiction as with the realities that they are extracted from.

Slattery goes to great lengths to minimise any sense of preciousness in his watercolours, with a tendency to paint squalor and decrepit objects to create works that are equally disjunctive and elusive.

Jackson Slattery obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from RMIT University (Melbourne) in 2004.

Since graduating, Slattery has had over 12 solo exhibitions, and participated in multiple group shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Japan and the United States. Slattery’s work is held in collections such as Art Bank, Geelong Gallery, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, as well as private collections in Australia, England, New York and Montreal. Slattery is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, and divides his time between Melbourne and Montreal.

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ARTIST PROFILE / HIGHLY COMMENDED

SAM CRANSTOUN

2017

Holiday, Oh Holiday continues Sam Cranstoun’s investigation of how image culture shapes a collective understanding of our environment and surroundings.

Holiday, oh holiday 2016

This work is comprised of two watercolour works, one mounted on top of the other – the foreground

Watercolour, pencil on board 50 x 60cm

is an image of Princess Diana and Prince Charles with their children on holiday, superimposed onto a non-descript seascape; the background is a recreation of the pattern on Diana’s dress.

The imagery used in this assemblage is drawn from the artist’s pre-existing archive of digital images. The interpretation of the finished work varies from viewer to viewer, and connections are identified that may or may not exist. By using water taken from the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in London, Cranstoun is also interested in exploring the role of the artist as pilgrim/ tourist and what it means to visit historically sensitive sites in a futile attempt to validate their own engagement or relationship with certain historical narratives.

Sam Cranstoun completed his Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours at the Queensland University of Technology in 2010. Cranstoun has exhibited extensively throughout Queensland in solo and group exhibitions, including GoMA Q, Gallery of Modern Art; Light Play, University of Queensland Art Museum; Memphis, TN, Milani Gallery; and The Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition, Griffith University Art Gallery. Cranstoun is represented by Milani Gallery in Brisbane, and Sophie Gannon in Melbourne.

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ARTIST PROFILE / HIGHLY COMMENDED

BELEM LETT

2017

Belem Lett’s work currently sits between abstraction and figuration. Interested in imperfect symmetry, Flat Earther explores human gesture

Flat Earther 2016

and approximation through a tongue-in-cheek reference to the futile and very human pursuit

Watercolour on paper 110 x 150cm

of perfection. By loosely attempting to repeat the same mark or gesture, there is a recognition of the materials of production and the flaws of creation in each mirrored half of the work.

The asymmetry creates patterns which can be interpreted as familiar, recognisable forms; such as faces, trees and figures. This affect is known as pareidolia, the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist – commonly experienced as seeing animals and faces in clouds, or Jesus in burnt toast.

Lett completed his Master of Fine Arts with the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, and is currently represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and Edwina Corlette Gallery in Brisbane. Recent solo exhibitions have included Aviary at Gallery9 (Sydney) and Paradise Lost at Edwina Corlette Gallery (Brisbane). Lett has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally; and has been a finalist in the Sunshine Coast Art Award, the Paddington Art Prize, the Tim Olsen Drawing Prize and was the recipient of the Brett Whiteley Scholarship in 2010.

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2017 FINALISTS TANYA BAILY

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LEAH BULLEN

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STEPHEN BIRD

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MARYANNE COUTTS

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CHARLIE DONALDSON

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MITCHELL DONALDSON

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ROB FENTON & DEB MOSTERT

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JANE GREALY

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GRAHAM MARCHANT

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PENNY MASON

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FIONA MCMONAGLE

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NICOLA MOSS

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ELIZABETH NELSON

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MONICA ROHAN

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CAMILLE SERISIER

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KAREN STEPHENS

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NAOMI WHITE

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LAURA WILLIAMS

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ARTIST PROFILE

TANYA BAILY

2017

Glisten is part of a series of works inspired by Tanya Baily’s daily walks at Trumper Park – a much cared-for nature reserve in the heart of urban

Glisten 2016

inner-Sydney. This small park is wildly alive with a diversity of nature, noisy with birds and animals,

Watercolour on paper 90 x 210cm

and is a tangle of soaring trees and winding foliage and busy thriving native plants. Glisten tries to capture the experience of wandering in the morning after the rain. It is an attempt to share something of the magic of this space and to celebrate this little Eden amongst the concrete.

Tanya Baily received her Master of Arts in Painting from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney in 2010. Baily has been a finalist in the John Leslie Landscape Prize, Lethbridge 10,000 Small Works Prize, Waverley Art Prize and the Mosman Prize.

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ARTIST PROFILE

LEAH BULLEN

2017

Leah Bullen’s work explores sites that recreate the natural world. The function of many constructed landscapes – such as aquarium – is to educate the

Vivarium No.2 2016

public about the wonders of nature, in addition to existing environmental issues. These venues are also

Gouache and monotype on paper 75 x 114cm

an illusion– a ‘theatre of the real’ where we experience nature only as an approximation. Bullen links this idea conceptually with the act of representational painting itself, which reimagines the world through illusion.

The artistic process behind Vivarium no.2 is that of watercolour monotype – the artist paints watercolour and gouache onto a plastic sheet, which is then transferred to the paper with water and pressure. This process allows for incident, where there is always an element of the unknown – figures can coalesce into abstract marks and textures, and then reconstitute themselves into figures again. This distinctive process is an attempt to make explicit the visual adjustments we experience as moving bodies, highlighting the mutability of our visual system, where we can process and reassemble information in unexpected ways.

Leah Bullen is currently completing her PhD in Visual Art with the Australian National University, Canberra.

Bullen has held a number of solo exhibitions, and has exhibited nationally in group shows and award exhibtiions including Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Wynne Prize, Hazlehurst Art on Paper Award and was the 2005 winner of the Australian National University Emerging Artist Awards.

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ARTIST PROFILE

STEPHEN BIRD

2017

Stephen Bird has been making immersive trips into the Australian outback since 1999 to research the myths and stories associated with

Wind and Wuthering 2016

his ancestors. The landscape is both the battle ground for Australia’s post-colonial present and

Watercolour on paper 27 x 35cm

a constant reminder of Australia’s colonial and pre-colonial past, and their associated narratives.

In the past few years this narrative has revolved around the story of Ralph Reid – Bird’s Great, Great Grandfather, a Scotsman who emigrated and farmed sheep at Acacia Creek, near the Border Ranges, NSW. Later in life, he lost his home, sight and land, which led to his madness and demise. Wind and Wuthering is focused on how the painted landscape can reveal a person’s physiological state and their interior trauma.

Now based in Sydney, Stephen Bird studied his Bachelor of Fine Art in Dundee, Scotland. Bird has held over 25 solo exhibitions since 1989, and has been selected for multiple juried exhibitions such as Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sunshine Coast Art Prize, , Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and the NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize. Bird’s work is held in several collections around the world, including the National Gallery of Australia (ACT), National Museum of Scotland (UK), Aberdeen Museum and Art Gallery (UK), Gimhae Clayarch Museum (South Korea) and the Taoxichuan Art Museum (China). Bird is currently represented by Heiser Gallery in Brisbane, and Olden Gallery in Sydney.

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ARTIST PROFILE

MARYANNE COUTTS

2017

Every day for two years Maryanne Coutts made a watercolour of the clothes of one person who was in a news story of the day. The first 365

Black News / White News: Place 2016

drawings were on white paper, the second on black. The absences and holes in the imagery read

Watercolour and gouache on paper 239 x 31cm

as either black or white, enabling both formal and political imagery that is about bodies and places.

By focusing on the ways that clothing hides and reveals the space in and around it, Black News/ White News: Place engages with the place that is the Earth on a global scale. Be it through the way a shroud rests on the streets of Paris, or the sky reveals Phil Hugh’s body, this play between absence and presence connects places of political potency, profound sorrow and casual joy.

For this iteration, Coutts has selected images that particularly speak about land, whether it be connotations of the geopolitical, the specific ways that clothes relate to spaces or the physicality of an individual’s personal place.

Maryanne Coutts received her Bachelor of Fine Art from the Victorian College of Arts in 1981, and her PhD from the University of Ballarat in 2000.

Coutts has exhibited extensively throughout Australia in both group and solo shows, and has been selected as a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award, Tattersalls Contemporary Art Prize and the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize. Coutts is represented by Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

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ARTIST PROFILE

CHARLIE DONALDSON

2017

Charlie Donaldson’s landscape paintings derive from his interest in conspiracy culture, particularly the desire to merge the paranoiac techniques

Lander / Wreckage 2016

of the conspiracy theorist with the art-making process. Lander and Wreckage draw from the

Watercolour on paper 15 x 21cm (each)

thrift store “O-ist” paintings of Jim Shaw and the intensely detailed space landscape paintings that grace the covers of science fiction novels.

Striking a balance between imagined worlds and a lack of technical skill, Donaldson attempts to inhabit the crazed mind of the conspiracy theorist, producing landscape images that indicate epic otherworldly vistas – compressed into a humourously dilapidated and misguided creative expression. The motifs of the crashed spaceship and the forgotten lander signal the failure of the paintings to transport the viewer to a believable setting, similarly to the way conspiracy theories generally fail to gain traction within mainstream scientific and historical fields.

Donaldson holds a Bachelor of Photography with Honours from the Queensland College of Art. Recent exhibitions include the Churchie national emerging art prize (QUT Art Museum Brisbane), the GAS prize (Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane) in 2012 and 2014 and solo exhibition Map to the treasure at Firstdraft in Sydney in 2016.

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ARTIST PROFILE

MITCHELL DONALDSON

2017

Mitchell Donaldson is interested in the landscape as a frame through which to examine the anthropocentric notions of human dominion

We’ve been here before 2016

over nature. Drawing on ideas from ecology and cosmology, Donaldson aims to express the

Watercolour, acrylic and dye on plywood 14 x 40cm

self-organisation of natural systems. Through a combination of painting and collage, We’ve been here before presents an interplay of formal geometric compositions and layered, cloudy, palette-like fields of colour. By accumulating, arranging and recycling studio detritus, these colours and forms find organisation and resonance, drawing parallels between the creative process of the studio and those in nature.

In this way, the resolution of the work is not predetermined. Rather, it emerges through extended material engagement with small elements and their relationships to one another. This attention to the potential in materials evoked an uncertain status of human agency within a natural realm conceived at once as chaotic and ordered, creative and destructive, active and passive.

Mitchell Donaldson graduated from the Queensland College of Art in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours, and is the co-founder of Addition Artist Run Initiative in Brisbane. Donaldson has been included in numerous local group shows and has presented solo exhibitions at Brisbane’s DM ARI, Fake Estate, The Laundry Artspace and Sawtooth ARI in Tasmania.

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ARTIST PROFILE

2017

ROB FENTON & DEB MOSTERT Situs Agri - Making our Path 2016 Watercoloour ink, resin on paper on board 60 x 60cm

Deb Mostert and Robert Fenton plotted the places

Robert Fenton and Deb Mostert live in Melbourne and

along the landscape between their studios in the

Brisbane respectively. Fenton has been exhibited in several

form of Mostert’s quirky fragments that represent the

national exhibitions, including the Rick Amor Drawing

variety of places and exhibitions they have shared.

Prize, Kogarah Art Prize, Mortimore Art Prize and the

Snowdomes, the epitome of a poorly manufactured

Muswellbrook Art Prize. Fenton received First Prize in

scenic memory, hold some of the key landscapes

the 2015 Sunshine Coast Art Prize and the 2015 Linden

along the plotted terrain of two overlapping art

Postcard Show. His work is held in the Sunshine Coast

practices. Fenton provides the landscape stage with his

Art Collection, Caloundra Regional Gallery, National

monochrome appropriation of a John Glover work.

Art School Sydney and Deakin University collections.

The landscape of Forma et Situs Agri – Marking our

Deb Mostert received her Bachelor of Fine Art from

Path is fractured – perhaps by individual pursuits or by

the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, and has since

the proliferation of manufactured goods and the lasting

held over eight solo exhibitions around Queensland

effects of an imposed colonial paradigm. Where do

and New South Wales. Mostert has been selected as

people and our pursuits fit into the landscape and what

a finalist in the Grace Cossington Smith Art Award,

effects are we having? The medium of watercolour is a

Redland Art Awards, Glencore Percival Portrait Painting

fugitive one, but the final application of clear resin seems

Prize and the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award.

to suffocate the work as much as it protects it. The

Her work is held in the Brisbane City Council collection,

reflective glare both repels and attracts and echoes the

Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery collection and the

uneasy relationship between natural and manufactured

Mater Private Hospital collection. Mostert is currently

and the imperfections of both nature and people.

represented by Lorraine Pilgrim Gallery, Southport.

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ARTIST PROFILE

JANE GREALY

2017

Jane Grealy has worked as an architectural illustrator for most of her professional life. Commissioned by architects and developers, her job was to show unbuilt

Boarding House, New Farm 2016

buildings accurately and in the most favourable way to attract approval and investment. In her 2015 exhibition

Watercolour on paper 46 x 92 cm

The Space Between, Grealy was painting and drawing the less examined architectural fabric and detail of New Farm where she has lived for thirty years.

Grealy is interested in the remnant spaces and landscape between and behind buildings, and the unassuming buildings which may not even register with passers by. Are these places used and familiar to people or are they unnoticed, even abandoned? Boarding House explores this sensibility, examining the jewel-lit windows of a boarding house on a pre dawn walk.

Jane Grealy currently resides in Brisbane, and has worked in the Architecture and Construction industry for 35 years. Grealy was selected as a finalist in the prestigious Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2016, and has been selected as a finalist in the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Stanthorpe Art Festival and the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing. Grealy is a member of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators and was the Founding President of the Australian Association of Architectural Illustrators.

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ARTIST PROFILE

GRAHAM MARCHANT

2017

Empress falls, located below the conservation hut within the Blue Mountains at Wentworth Falls, NSW has been a reoccurring subject for Graham

Empress Falls Blue Mountains 2016

Marchant. Empress Falls, Blue Mountains was based on numerous studies and plein air drawings, which

Watercolour on paper 100 x 66cm

formed the basis for this larger studio painting.

Marchant is primarily concerned with how paintings and artworks are created – his oeuvre is based on his close observation of the natural world, encompassing both natural and manicured environments.

Amidst Marchant’s fascination of the landscape lies his meticulous rendering of detail, interplay of light and organized composition. The challenge of creating such a painting is a gradual and deliberate process, sustained to the final stages by the adjustment and balancing of colour through layers and transparent glazes; providing scope for redefinition, development and revision.

Graham Marchant, now based in Sydney, has exhibited in over 25 solo showings and numerous group exhibitions and awards since 1974. Marchant has taught in the United Kingdom, Australia and United States; and has participated in residencies in New York, Paris, Spain, Rome and Australia. Marchant received his Master of Arts in Fine Art from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (UK) and was awared his PhD from Newcastle University (NSW) in 2012.

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ARTIST PROFILE

PENNY MASON

2017

Penny Mason’s work draws parallels between watercolour techniques and forces that shape the landscape; including the effects of gravity,

In Ice and Air #3 2016

temperature, air and water flow and vibrations.

Mason exploits the alluvial qualities of watercolours

Watercolour on paper 70cm diameter

to suggest fragments and detail of landscape features and imagine the energy, turbulence and ephemerality of phenomena in time and space.

In Ice and Air #3 alludes to evidence of occurrences that impact regeneration, renewal, stasis, decay and erosion. Traces of these systems are found in polar ice core samples, including dust, pollen, ash, air bubbles and in evidence of thawing and freezing cycles. Ice cores reveal a range of subtle to dramatic climate events, including temperature variation, rainfall, forest fires, dust storms and volcanic eruptions. They provide an invaluable component of our understanding of climate history and the shaping of the earth’s landscapes.

Tasmanian artist Penny Mason completed her Master of Fine Art by Research with Monash University in 2004. Recent exhibitions include Floating Worlds at RAFT Artspace (TAS), Moving Pieces at Sawtooth ARI (TAS) and States of Wonder at The Mill Gallery (TAS). Mason has exhibited extensively in group and juried exhibitions, and has been a finalist in National Works on Paper, Swan Hill Print and Drawing Awards, City of Hobart Art Prize and Hutchins Art Prize to name a few. Mason currently resides in Hobart and is represented by RAFT Artspace in Hobart.

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ARTIST PROFILE

FIONA McMONAGLE

2017

Fiona McMonagle’s practice draws heavily upon her suburban upbringing. Inner city parks and gardens are places of beauty – spaces where communities come

The Park at the end of my road 2015/16

together for picnics and games with families and pets.

However, they are also ambiguous – attracting and

Watercolour on paper and HD Animation video, 2:46mins 90 x 210cm

housing people on the edges of society; providing both entertainment and shelter, safety and danger.

This contemporary ambiguity is explored in The park at the end of my road through the mediums of watercolour and animation. McMonagle’s watercolour animation is composed of one thousand watercolour paintings, merged to create a 2:45 minute animation.

Fiona McMonagle received her Bachelor of Fine Art from the Victorian College of Art in 2000.

McMonagle has held numerous solo exhibitions in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne; and has had her work exhibited in the National Self Portrait Prize, Luminouse: 100 Years of Watercolour (National Gallery of Victoria), Basil Sellers Art Prize 4, Beleura National Works on Paper and the Hazelhurst Art Award. Her work is currently held in several national collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum and Monash University Museum of Art. McMonagle is based in Melbourne, and is represented

by Sophie Gannon Gallery (Melbourne), Olsen Gallery (Sydney) and Heiser Gallery (Brisbane).

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ARTIST PROFILE

NICOLA MOSS

2017

The sense of well-being we experience when in contact with nature is central to Nicola Moss’s current work. Each painting reflects on embodied

Life on the edge - Avian score 2016

experience and an exchange of energy that occurs when we are consciously present in a place and

Watercolour, gouache, graphite, ink and acrylic on paper 90 x 210cm

time. Moss refers to this energy exchange as ‘synergy’, represented in her work with abstract circular motifs of reconstructed Hoop Pine branches – for Moss, energy can be felt in light, a breath of scented wind, or a symphony of bird call.

With around 85% of Australians living within 50km of the coast, life on the edge recognises the importance of conserving and maintaining natural heritage reserves. Working plein air at Currimundi Conservation Reserve; Life on the edge – Avian score encapsulates a feeling of rejuvenating sensory experience.

Nicola Moss completed her Certificate IV in Fine Arts and Diploma in Printmaking and Drawing at the Brisbane Institute of Art in 2000. Moss has held over 15 solo shows since 2006, and has exhibited in multiple group exhibitions across the country.

Her work is collected by the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Redland Art Gallery, Moreton Bay Regional Art Collection and in several hospital art collections through Queensland.

Moss currently lives and works in Brisbane, and is represented by Spiro Grace Art Rooms in Brisbane.

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ARTIST PROFILE

ELIZABETH NELSON

2017

Melbourne artist Elizabeth Nelson’s practice is founded on a deliberate process of placing herself within an environment before meticulously painting

On the Hill 2016

the surrounding scenery her over numerous weeks.

This method allows Nelson to directly express her

Watercolour on paper 168 x 228cm

experience of being present within a landscape over time. Beginning on a single sheet of paper, the work expands organically over nine sheets.

On the Hill was made on location in central Victoria, using a limited palette of coloured inks and watercolour. The transparency of this media was appropriate for representing the glare of the midday sun on grass and the bright light that so often permeates the Australian landscape. Nelson is drawn to the Romantic concepts of nature as a primal force that inspires human emotions such as awe, wonder, and curiosity. Nelson seeks to create images to which the viewer can respond through association and feeling.

Nelson holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a PhD in History from the University of Melbourne, Victoria. Recent solo showings include Luxuriant at Wide Open Road Art Space (Castlemaine) and Verdant at Gallerysmith Project Space (Melbourne).

Selected group exhibitions include Paddington Art Prize, Swan Hill Print and Drawing Award and the Banyule Works on Paper Award.

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ARTIST PROFILE

MONICA ROHAN

2017

The dense foliage which dominates Monica Rohan’s work is vibrant, translucent and sharply detailed in a way that mimics the saturated

Into the canopy backwards 2016

brilliance of Queensland sunlight. The structure of the tree and other grounding elements of

Watercolour on paper 53 x 73cm

the landscape are stripped away, transforming the foliage into a hovering, shifting mass of fidgeting leaves. These compositional features combine to increase the vulnerability of the figure as they’re pulled into the canopy.

Monica Rohan graduated from the Queensland College of Art with her Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours in 2011. In 2016, Rohan’s work was selected as a finalist in the Archibald Prize for her portrait of fashion duo Easton Pearson; and was selected for the GOMA Q exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane in 2015. Her work is held in a number of private and public collections, including the University of Queensland Art Museum, QAGOMA, Tweed River Regional Gallery and Griffith Artworks. Rohan currently resides in Brisbane and is represented by Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane, and Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne.

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ARTIST PROFILE

CAMILLE SERISIER

2017

In this contemporary homage to an 1887 coastal scene by Tom Roberts, the bather’s body in The Sunny South dissolves into the seascape with only

The Sunny South 2016

the head and feet visible amidst the blue waves.

The sounds of breathing and kicking feet form a

Watercolour, pencil on paper Looped video on iPad

rhythm akin to the crashing waters of the ocean.

120 x 240 x 70 cm 4:3, colour, stereo, 42sec

of contemporary watercolour as a formidable

This work continues Camille Serisier’s investigation medium for exploring nature and the feminine; combining traditional techniques with contemporary digital media. Two looped videos are presented on iPad screens in front of large watercolour waves – the first of continuously kicking feet, the second of the bather’s head dipping in and out of the ocean with each breath.

Serisier received her Bachelor of Fine Art from the Australian National University in Canberra and trained as a scenic painter in both Melbourne and Sydney. Recent solo showings include Ladies of Oz at Spiro Grace Art Rooms (Brisbane), and The Wonderful Land of Oz at Spiro Grace (Brisbane) and Kick Arts Contemporary (Cairns). Serisier has exhibited widely around Australia, and has been selected as a finalist in multiple awards including the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (NSW), Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Clayton Utz Award and the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award. Serisier is now based in Brisbane, and is represented by Spiro Grace Art Rooms.

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ARTIST PROFILE

KAREN STEPHENS

2017

Karen Stephens’ paintings depict a love affair with Central Western Queensland and attempt to form a contemporary translation of landscape.

Conglomerate #3 Galvanised Burr and Button Grass 2016

Conglomerate #3 – Galvanised Burr and Button Grass comes from a series of works made while in the artist’s hometown of Winton,

Synthetic polymer paint on paper 19 x 27cm

Queensland after drought-breaking rainfall allowed many dormant plant species to appear.

Living remotely poses many challenges for Stephens, and she has learnt to make her work with limited resources. Stephens manufactures her conglomerate surfaces using take-away bags, unsuccessful lottery tickets and abandoned newspapers until they are rock hard. The tearing and re-shaping of material not only redefines what landscape is, but what it could be.

Karen Stephens, now based in rural Queensland, is currently completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours remotely through the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. In 2016, Stephens was awarded the Art for Life Award

by Flying Arts Queensland, and presented three solo exhibitions. Recent group shows have included Colours of Queensland, People–Place and the John Villiers Waltzing Matilda Art Prize.

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ARTIST PROFILE

NAOMI WHITE

2017

While wondering through Mount Clunie National Park in New South Wales one afternoon, Naomi White came across what felt like a secret forest.

Afternoon View Through The Forest 2016

White was drawn to the contrast of the dark foreground and the strong structure of the

Gouache on paper 27cm daimeter

gums which seamlessly gave way to a quiet scene beyond. The afternoon light was dancing along the delicate ferns which made up the undergrowth and gave it a soft feel of movement and mystery – a perfect scene where structure, light and textures all worked together to create a captivating landscape that drew her in.

Naomi White has held numerous solo exhibitions at Flinders Lane Gallery (Melbourne), Charles Hewitt Gallery (Sydney) and Libby Edwards Gallery (Brisbane). White has been a finalist in the John Leslie Art Prize, Tattersall’s Art Prize, Fleurieu Art Prize and the Wynne Landscape Prize; and has been awarded first place in the 2014 Calleen Award and both the 2004 and 2005 Tallarook Art Exhibition. White currently resides in Brisbane, and is represented by Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne.

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ELAINE BERMINGHAM NATIONAL WATERCOLOUR PRIZE

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ARTIST PROFILE

LAURA WILLIAMS

2017

Since moving to Perth in 2014 from Melbourne, Laura Williams has spent much of her time learning about the native plants

Half Parachute 2016 Watercolour on paper 61 x 48cm

that are endemic to Western Australia.

Williams is drawn to contrast within the Western Australian landscapes. The harsh, spiky bushland is laced with magically delicate bursts of colour from the orchids, grevilleas and banksia flowers.

Some are difficult to see – obscured and overwhelmed by other elements, but gradually becoming more visible over time, like a reward for remembering to look more closely.

Half Parachute is focused on the concept of a drifting or floating landscape as a metaphor for the uncertainty surrounding our environment, and the many ways that we carry memories of place with us and collate them over time.

Laura Williams received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions include Bearings at Spectrum Project Space (Perth) and Life at Showcase Gallery (Perth). Williams has exhibited extensively around Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales; and has been a finalist in the Cliftons Art Prize, Minnawarra Art Awards, and received first place in the Melville Art Awards in both 2009 and 2010.

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ELAINE BERMINGHAM NATIONAL WATERCOLOUR PRIZE

LIST OF WORKS TANYA BAILY Glisten 2016 Watercolour on paper, 90 x 210cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

CHARLIE DONALDSON Lander 2016 Watercolour on paper, 15 x 21cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

LEAH BULLEN Vivarium No 2. 2016 Watercolour, gouache and monotype on paper, 75 x 114cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

MITCHELL DONALDSON We’ve been here before 2016 Watercolour, acrylic and dye on plywood, 14 x 40cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

STEPHEN BIRD Wind and Wuthering 2016 Watercolour on paper, 27 x 35cm.

Courtesy of the artist, Heiser Gallery Brisbane & Olsen Gallery, Sydney.

ROB FENTON & DEB MOSTERT Forma et Situs Agri Marking our Path 2016 Watercolour, ink, resin, paper on board, 178 x 140cm.

Courtesy of the artists, Lorraine Pilgrim Gallery & Robert Fenton Gallery.

MARYANNE COUTTS Black News / White News: Place 2016 Watercolour and gouache on paper, 239 x 31cm.

Courtesy of the artist & Australian Galleries, Sydney.

SAM CRANSTOUN Holiday, oh holiday 2016 Watercolour, pencil on board, (water taken from the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial - Hyde Park, London) 50 x 60cm.

Courtesy of the artist, Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne & Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

CHARLIE DONALDSON Wreckage 2016 Watercolour on paper 15 x 21cm Courtesy of the artist.

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JANE GREALY Boarding House, New Farm 2016 Watercolour on paper, 46 x 92cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

BELEM LETT Flat Earther 2016, Watercolour and metallic pigment on paper, 110 x 150cm.

Courtesy of the artist, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane & Gallery 9, Sydney.

GRAHAM MARCHANT Empress Falls Blue Mountains 2016 Watercolour on paper, 100 x 66cm.

Courtesy of the artist & Artsite, Sydney.

2017

LIST OF WORKS PENNY MASON In Ice and Air #3 2016 Watercolour on paper, 70cm diameter.

Courtesy of the artist & RAFT South Hobart.

FIONA MCMONAGLE In Ice and Air #3 2016 The park at the end of my road (still) 2015-16 Watercolour, ink on paper HD Animation video, 2.46mins.

Courtesy of the artist, Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne & Olsen Gallery, Sydney. Production; Declan McMonagle.

NICOLA MOSS Life on the edge Avian score 2016 Watercolour, gouache, graphite, acrylic and monotype on paper, 92 x 141cm.

Courtesy of the artist, Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane.

Photography: Carl Warner.

ELIZABETH NELSON On the Hill 2016 Ink and watercolour on paper.

168 x 228cm Courtesy of the artist.

MONICA ROHAN Into the canopy backwards 2016 Watercolour on paper, 53 x 73cm.

Courtesy of the artist, Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane & Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne Photography: Jon Linkins.

CAMILLE SERISIER The Sunny South 2016 Watercolour and pencil on paper, looped video on Ipad 120 x 240 x 70cm 4:3, colour, stereo, 42sec.

Courtesy of the artist & Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane.

JACKSON SLATTERY Trafalgar/Mile Ex 2016 Watercolour on paper 27.5 x 35.5cm / 29 x 39cm.

Courtesy of the artist & Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.

KAREN STEPHENS Conglomerate #3 Galvanised Burr and Button Grass 2016 Acrylic on paper, 19 x 27cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

NAOMI WHITE Afternoon View Through The Forest 2016 Gouache on paper, 27cm diameter.

Courtesy of the artist, and Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne.

LAURA WILLIAMS Half Parachute 2015/16 Watercolour on paper, 61 x 48cm.

Courtesy of the artist.

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ELAINE BERMINGHAM NATIONAL WATERCOLOUR PRIZE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PRINCIPAL JUDGE 2017

PROJECT TEAM cont.

Michael Zavros

Claudia Husband

SELECTION PANEL 2017 Angela Goddard Director of Griffith Artworks, Griffith University

Dr Julie Fragar Painting & Fine Art Program Advisor QCA, Griffith University

Dr Christopher Bennie Lecturer - Visual Art QCA, Griffith University

PROJECT TEAM Tracy Smith College Manager, QCA, Griffith University

Liz Tupas Business Development Officer, QCA, Griffith University

Gillian French Director, Development and Alumni Office, Griffith University

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QCA Galleries Coordinator, Griffith University

Kylie Spear QCA Galleries Coordinator (previous), Griffith University

Emma Theyers Bermingham Prize Coordinator, Griffith University

Brian Sanstrom QCA Galleries Technician Griffith University

PUBLICATION CREDITS All images are © the artists and photographers.

All texts supplied by artists or their representatives.

Editor: Claudia Husband Biography Author: Gillian French Introduction Author: Derrick Cherrie

BERMINGHAM FAMILY With thanks to the Bermingham family and friends.

ARTIST PROFILE

2017

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Watercoloour on paper 60 x 60cm

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