Millie Crowley
Northern Beaches Secondary College Freshwater Senior Campus
LANDSCAPES REVEALED
Painting
Acrylic Paint on Wooden Board
Landscapes Revealed is an interpretation of the topography of the landscape around me, which has been a source of inspiration. My body of work is intended to express the 'scaffold' of the land: the basic shapes on which its beauty is built. I have used my skills of observation, my experiences and imagination to create my paintings. My stylistic approach - the use of shapes and an exaggerated colour palette - represents the colours and patterns that are found within the landscape. These colours and patterns only become evident when you immerse yourself in the environment.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the artist Ben Waters.
Marker's Commentary
This series of paintings presents an evocative interpretation of natural landscapes, focusing on the familiar shapes of Australian bushland settings. Embracing a modernist aesthetic, the landscapes present a highly refined and deliberate departure from naturalistic detail to reveal hidden patterns and structures within nature. The controlled and skilful application of flat paint, semi-abstract stylised forms, and a muted colour palette links to title Landscapes Revealed, vistas that are not immediately recognisable, but come into focus through the audience’s sustained investigation.
By contrasting natural forms with simplified designs, the body of work draws inspiration from the Australian bush and mountain ranges, employing confident colour selection and deliberate pattern exploration, suggestive of the camouflage found within native flora and fauna. This approach captures the essence and complexity of the landscape while evoking the modernist styles of Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, and Roland Wakelin through the reduction of form and exploration of decorative realism. The assured approach to composition, subject matter and handling of materials reveals a highly sophisticated and cohesive series. This is heightened by the considered choice of contrasting scale, positioning the three larger landscapes as broader vistas to be viewed as if from afar, while the six smaller panels create a more intimate encounter of the environment, almost as memories or postcards of the experience.