This painting describes the search for bush tucker across the Central Desert landscape which is an important part of Aboriginal life.
Gracie (born 1956) specializes in painting the Bush Plum Dreaming, also known to the Alyawarre as Arnwekety. Her style of painting is distinctively minimalist and she uses a very delicate dotting technique and traditional colours, which derive from the colours of natural ochres.
Mixed media (oil on low saturation printed canvas, the print simply acts as a sketch). The original watercolour painting is a life size depiction of an endemic Australian lily named Doryanthes Palmeri.
This painting won the Focus on Nature Purchase Award in 2006, the first Australian artist to do so. It is now part of a permanent collection of the New York State Museum, USA
There are no obstacles in Carmel Jenkin’s work. Her nudes are for: ‘getting emotion out there’ . To achieve this, she brings the nude right up to the picture plane, to directly involve the viewer with the subject. While there is an element of abstraction in her work, the female ambience, as if the artist’s eye got so close she could see the nude as emotion in a series of curved shapes. These works are raw and immediate and usually have a distorted and linear form. They may portray a sense of naked angst but, at the same time, show possession of a deeply spiritual soul. At the risk of exclusionism one wonders if these works, drawn by a woman, are a language to be read and pondered by other women. Either way, Carmel Jenkin is engaged in a passionate journey of artistic and life discovery through the female body.
There are no obstacles in Carmel Jenkin’s work. Her nudes are for: ‘getting emotion out there’ . To achieve this, she brings the nude right up to the picture plane, to directly involve the viewer with the subject. While there is an element of abstraction in her work, the female ambience, as if the artist’s eye got so close she could see the nude as emotion in a series of curved shapes. These works are raw and immediate and usually have a distorted and linear form. They may portray a sense of naked angst but, at the same time, show possession of a deeply spiritual soul. At the risk of exclusionism one wonders if these works, drawn by a woman, are a language to be read and pondered by other women. Either way, Carmel Jenkin is engaged in a passionate journey of artistic and life discovery through the female body.
