Susan Crookes

Susan Crookes Home Inside My Head

18 May - 9 June 2024

Susan Crookes (b. 1973) is a mid-career artist. She lives with her partner, painter & musician Paul Lacey, their 2nd greyhound Jackson and 6 rescued parrots. They live and work in their home studio in Milang, on Ngarrindjeri Country/Lake Alexandrina, in South Australia’s eastern Fleurieu region. Her work can be found in private, corporate & public collections throughout Australia (The Silk Cut Foundation, National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia) and has been included in several national touring exhibitions, awards & publications.

“Home Inside My Head-is my latest collection of paintings-Still Lives, Portraits & Interiors painted in acrylic & mixed media on board & canvas. These works bring to mind the personal, domestic sanctuary of Homethe tension between an idealised version of home we have in our heads vs. the reality of compromise & circumstance. The need for quietude to recharge & find our equilibrium, whether through people & animals we share (& have shared) our life with; or through our attachment to special belongings & places embodied with our sense of identity, culture & connection to others. Always shifting between the tactile & intangible, longing & memory. When the unthinkable knocks us sideways, and affects our capacity to function as we would wish, our reflex is hold that sense of home within ourselves.”

Susan Crookes

March 2024

Sales:

Julie Collins - Director gallery@djprojects.net

0417324 795

Free delivery and installation within Victoria.

Shipping arranged interstate and Overseas. & Gallery accepts Art Money www.artmoney.com

21 Morce Ave Sorrento, Victoria, Australia

www.andgalleryaustralia.net & Gallery is part of the djprojects family of art related businesses. www.djprojects.net

100x122cm

$3500

Sighthounds are known for their gentle temperament, snaggletooth snoots, sliding off of the edge of beds, and lying in seemingly uncomfortable positions, legs akimbo, whilst managing to still look elegant.

1. Self Portrait with Snaggletooth Hound Acrylic on board

2. The Curly Ones (The Artist’s Mother In Striped Chair with Ragdoll Cat)

Acrylic on canvas

120x110cm

$3000

This portrait of my mother came about after a week-long road trip away, staying with family friends. I took many pictures of mum sitting in this striped chair and the drawings came out looking like a character from Fractured Fairytales.

3. Chaise & Cats (Kobee)

Acrylic on board

90x122cm

$3,000

Kobee (family friend & big sister to Marsha) hosted my mum & I on a trip last year to Bendigo. Hers were my test cats-I found them fascinating the way they interacted with strange humans in their space. When I got back to the studio, aside from house-plant envy, I kept thinking how Kobee looked to me like one of Matisse or Rousseau’s portraits in her home full of interesting objects & potted plants.

122x90cm

$3,000

The sweetest little French bulldog pup made a beeline for our (straight out of kennels) greyhound Jackson at a busy cafe. This is a large version of an earlier smaller work Frenchie( Batfink) 2021. Whenever I see Bulldogs, Mastiffs, Staffies, Pugs I can’t help but see them through a Bugs Bunny/Loony Tunes lens.

4. Princess Piglet (French Bulldog) Acrylic on board

Acrylic on canvas

130x160cm

$5,000

Marsha is a family friend whose whippets Twiggy & Tom have the similar markings as ours did, which gave me the oddest sense of déjà vu when I met them on a recent trip to Bendigo. First time working on this scale & on canvas.

5. Chaise & Whippets (Marsha)

6. Bed-Fail, Sighthound Style

Acrylic on board

100x122cm

$3,500

7. Pablo Pony (Rolling Dust Bath)

Acrylic & oil stick on board

90 x120cm

$ 3,000

My first painting using oil sticks, which I really love for their immediacy…This is JJ the first horse I bought as an adult to retrain as a ridden horse. He had a big personality (from fire-breathing dragon to affectionate Labrador) and plenty of opinions about what I thought I was doing. From him I learned the skills needed to retrain dozens more rescue horses at an equine sanctuary. The preamble to rolling is many circles round & round, preferably pawing to make a giant crater-and if that is straight after having a bath, even better.

8. Orange Room (Pantapin) with Blue Chair & Whippet

Acrylic & oil stick on board 100 x 244cm diptych

$ 7,000

We spent 10 years in Pantapin, Noongar Country, in the eastern wheatbelt district of WA. It is the home inside my head-the first place that was ours, after 5 years in Margaret River & Denmark in the southwest—we headed inland to find something that suited our needs. Pantapin was totally landlocked-dry as a lime-bur ners boot, isolated & with all the associated logistical difficulties. It comprised the general store & house, and a few out buildings (an old blacksmith forge & garage pre-dating the 1930’s buildings) a huge Moreton Bay fig tree, pepper trees & a few giant gums. The buildings were in ruins, & it hadn’t been lived in for over 20 years (by humans at any rate-plenty of pigeons & rodents, shingleback lizards and all manner of snakes). We had each other, our whippets, and our artwork. Those little bush-whippets are long gone now & were our constant companions, so I’ve brought them home in these paintings. The 4 miniatures were hand-cut into gothic arch shapes, I had in mind the way we worship animals & the significance we attach to objects, place & memory.

Acrylic

100x122cm

$3,500

Show Pony is rugged up in their stable, bathed & ready for competition the next day.

When choosing the best place to have a little lie-down, grey horses

Continued…

9. Show Pony (Dapple Grey) on board

10. Side Eye Standoff (Ragdoll, Monstera & Greyhound)

Acrylic on board, framed in Tasmanian oak

3 panels 60x45cm each. 63x140cm total framed

$2,500

This triptych I started in 2021 and decided to make it into a 3 panel piece. It is a meeting of the family Ragdoll cat (a breed known for being easy going, affectionate & chilled-she is not) & our greyhound Jackson. The pot plant is the mediator in this particular arbitration scenario.

11. (Pantapin Interior 3) Sunroom Studio, Murgatroid the Robot, Scapegoat & Medium-mixed media on handcut plywood (Acrylic, paint pens & oil pastel)

35.5x25.5 irregular

$500

12.

Mixed media on hand-cut plywood(acrylic, paint pens & oil pastel)

35.5x25.5

$500

(Pantapin Interior 1) Sunroom Studio Coffee, Fiddle Leaf Fig & Sculptures

Medium-mixed media on hand-cut plywood (Acrylic, paint pens & oil pastel)

35.5x25.5 irregular

$500

13. (Pantapin Interior 2) Blue Chair, Sculptures & Jango Whippet

Mixed media on handcut plywood (Acrylic, paint pens & oil pastel)

35.5x25.5cm irregular

$500

14. (Pantapin Interior 4) Minkey Whippet, Banjo & Teapot

15. Cat Nap & Pot Plants

Acrylic on canvas

Canvas 60x90cm Framed 63x93cm Tasmanian oak

$2,000

Susan Crookes C.V.

Solo Exhibitions:

2024 - Home Inside My Head, & Gallery Australia, Sorrento VIC.

2022 - A Dogs Life, Pandemic Pets - BMG Art, Adelaide, SA.

2011 – The Devil Had Hold- Greenhill Galleries Adelaide, SA.

2005 -- Pinatas and Calaveras - Greenhill Galleries Adelaide, SA

2001 -- Stagger Lee - Greenhill Galleries Adelaide,SA

2000 -- Fairytales for Hard Men -- Greenhill Galleries Adelaide, SA

1997 -- Scary Monsters - Greenhill Galleries Adelaide, SA

1996 -- Gulas - One Off Gallery, Macclesfield, SA

Distinctions & Selected Group Exhibitions:

2023 - Relaunch Exhibition- & Gallery, Sorrento VIC.

2023 -Sushi Train, & Gallery, Sorrento VIC.

2021/2- Salon & A#N#I#M#A#L, &Gallery, Sorrento & Federation Square Melbourne, VIC.

2021/2 -Gallery Artists Xmas Exhibition-BMG Art SA.

2012 - BEAUTIFUL SOUP, Print Exchange Project & Exhibition curated by Rona Green, St. Heliers Street Gallery, Abbotsford, VIC.

2013 - Acquisition, Charles Sturt University Art Collection, VIC.

2012- Acquisition, National Gallery of Australia, ACT.

2006 - Acquisition, Works on Paper Collection, National Gallery Victoria.

2005 - ArtsWA Project Grant, Department of Arts and Culture WA Gov.

2002 - Silk Cut Award Finalists Exhibition, Glen Eira Arts Centre, VIC.

2001/2 - Hutchins Art Prize, Finalists Exhibition Hobart, TAS.

2001 - South West Survey, Bunbury Regional Galleries, WA

2000 - Fremantle Print Award Exhibition, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA

1998 - Mentorship with renowned printmaker Linda Groblicka - CountryArts SA

1998 - Festival Fringe, Sacred & Profane, Hilton International Adelaide, SA.

1998 - The Silk Cut Collection, touring ANU Drill Hall Gallery ACT, Fremantle Arts Centre WA, regional VIC and NSW

1997 - Fremantle Print Award Finalists Exhibition, Fremantle Arts Centre WA.

1997 - Australian Print-Media Awards (Highly Commended) Acquisitive Award, University of Western Sydney NSW.

1997 - 6th International Works on Paper Fair, Sydney NSW. Main St Editions, SA

1995 - 5th Lloyd Rees Youth Art Award (Finalist) ABC Centre Ultimo NSW.

1994 - The Silk Cut Award (Finalist) RMIT Galleries VIC.

PUBLICATIONS/REVIEWS.

1995 - The Silk Cut Acquisitive Award for Linocut Prints, Catalogue.

1995 - S. Radok - Adelaide Review, April.

1996 - J. Neylon -Adelaide Review, March.

1996 - Prints Among Adelaide Women, Business Review Weekly – Adam Dutkiewicz, 6/5/96.

2000 -Working the Mob, J. Neylon, Adelaide Review, Feb.

2000 -Fairytales for Hard Men, David O’Brien, DB Magazine, Feb.

2002 -The Silk Cut Acquisitive Award for Linocut Prints, Catalogue.

COLLECTIONS.

Carrick Hill, Adelaide, SA.

The Silk Cut Foundation, Vic.

University of Western Sydney, NSW.

National Gallery of Victoria, (works on paper)VIC.

National Gallery of Australia, (works on paper)ACT.

Charles Sturt University Art Collection, VIC.