Creative development: choosing paintings
The world of visual art is vast so in order to prevent insanity, I gave myself some limitations when choosing artworks to feature in Painting Melody. The following three elements had to be present:
- It had to be a painting (no matter how much I might want to include sculpture, installation, performance, participatory or socially-engaged artworks)
- The work had to be either a painting I have experienced in the flesh or held in my hands printed in a book (ie. they couldn’t be paintings I love but have only seen online).
- The painting had to catch my eye immediately - I had to have a gut reaction at first sight
- I had to feature primarily female artists because well… the history of art is really the history of men
There are many more paintings I wanted to include! But the process of editing and identifying works that speak to me personally allowed me to refine the focus of what I wanted to say in the show and articulate my preferences and unique way of looking. I discovered I’m drawn to the illustrative: pictures rich in story; I love surrealism and magical realism where meaning isn’t immediately obvious or only reveals itself through prolonged contemplation; and I love abstract expressionism and minimalism. I also really enjoy the self-referential and super clever nature of art about making art (one of my favourite concepts came from an essay by Olivia Laing in her book “Art in an Emergency” where she shares what it was like to sit for a portrait while she, the writer, wrote in real time, her observations on the artist painting her image).
There could be several different versions of Painting Melody to come… a brand new show with a whole new set of songs that feature different periods or styles or places! A Painting Melody focused exclusively on south-east Queensland painters for example or Australian female painters… Quite exciting really.
Below are the final chosen paintings for the very first iteration of the show:
Mabel Juli
Garnkiny Ngarranggarni (2016)
White clay, ochre and charcoal on canvas
150 x 150 cm
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
Gustav Klimt
The Three Ages of Woman (1905)
Oil on canvas
180 x 180 cm
Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Rome
Artemisia Gentileschi
Judith Beheading Holofernes (1620-21)
Oil on canvas
199 x 162.5 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Frida Kahlo
The Broken Column (1944)
Oil on masonite
39.8 x 30.6 cm
Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City
Agnes Martin
The Tree (1964)
Oil and graphite on canvas
182.9 x 182.9 cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Amy Cutler
Traction (2002)
Acrylic on wood panel / casein and flashe on wood
81.3 x 152 cm
Private collection
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The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and City of Moreton Bay to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
