As in previous bodies of work, Elaine Green’s new paintings emanate a metaphysical sensibility. Each landscape may be understood as the extension of an inner sense of being, or place where Nature and Self are fused. The imagery projects a profound quietude that encourages a state of reflection. “My interest lies in the fleeting nature of the elements, perceiving a certain moment and then attempting to capture its essence,” she relays.
The ephemeral nature of clouds and flowing water has always captured my attention,” Green continues. “On the one hand they remind me of the passing of time and on the other, they keep me fixed in the ‘here and now’, savouring the moment. Clouds and water stretches are like layers of paint; like layers of the soul. I think my works are more about those feelings I get from experiencing a scene rather than actual representations of it.”
Clouds span the mist-enshrouded scene depicted in On the Banks of the Macquarie River. A focal tree seems to coalesce with the shrubs and reflections at the river’s reedy edge. The Macquarie River flows through the historic convict-built village of Ross in the Midlands of Tasmania. It is a place Green now often visits, staying solitary days at a time to absorb and translate its tranquillity into precursory art works. She tells that compared to the North West coastal town of Stanley where she lives, there is hardly even a breeze in the Ross area and so here is able to indulge her love of painting en plein air.
The locale’s atmospheric stillness is exemplified in the painting, From Ross Bridge 2. Viewed from the 1836 sandstone structure, the Macquarie River is a mirror-like expanse across the foreground. We visually journey up through the reflections towards the horizon with its deforested, farmland hills and cloud-suffused sky. A bird soars aloft, high above the river now meandering behind densely foliaged trees.
Green’s innate understanding of compositional factors is discernible in the Morning Reflections painting. Dawn’s warm-hued cloud configurations and their reflection in the Macquarie River form the semblance of an arch. The shore’s verdant vegetation subtly arches in a converse direction. Impeding the viewer’s eye from following the river out of the picture plane, a few reeds positioned midstream appear to point back towards a distant group of swimming ducks.
The depictions reflect an intimate engagement with the aesthetic beauty abounding in the natural world. Green’s instinctive brushwork and process radiates a calming, visceral appeal. The difference between the observer and the observed is subsumed in a boundless luminosity. All is united both compositionally and in the sense of transcendence. Such imagery offers an alternative way to respond to our own environments. Within a suspension of time and movement, we too may encounter those moments of serenity conducive to enlightened observation and personal reflection.
JACQUELINE HOUGHTON
Elaine Green holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree, SCU, Lismore 2015 and a Diploma of Fine Arts, Murwillumbah TAFE 2011. Over the past few years she has received a number of awards and been a finalist in a great number of prizes including:
Tidal Art Prize, Devonport Regional Gallery, TAS 2022; BAM Art Prize, NSW 2022; Kangaroo Valley Art Prize, NSW 2022; Kennedy Art Prize, Adelaide, SA 2022;
Women’s Art Prize, Burnie & Hobart, TAS 2021; Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize (professional artists section), NSW 2021; Lethbridge Landscape Prize – Salon des Refuses, QLD 2021; Highly Commended, Glover Art Prize, TAS 2021; Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award, QLD 2020; Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (emerging artists section), NSW 2020; Glover Art Prize, TAS 2020; People’s Choice Award – ARTEX, Tasmania 2019; Highly Commended – TASARTS, TAS 2019; Highly Commended, Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, NSW 2019; Tattersalls Landscape Prize, QLD 2019, 2018; finalist, Milburn Art Prize, Brisbane Institute of Art, QLD 2019; Rotary Art Spectacular, Brisbane, QLD 2019; Brisbane Art Prize, QLD 2016; Waverley Art Prize, NSW 2016; Camberwell Art Prize, VIC 2016; Lethbridge 10000, QLD 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014; Rotary Art Prize, QLD 2016; Border Art Prize, NSW 2016, 2014, 2012; Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, NSW 2015; Curator’s Choice, Byron Arts Classic NSW 2015; She Art Prize, Walker Gallery, VIC 2015; Sunshine Coast Art Prize, QLD 2014; The Kaske Award for Painting, SCU NSW 2013; Len Fox Art Award, VIC 2013, 2011; First Prize, Ocean Shores Art Expo, NSW 2013; Wilson Art Award, Lismore NSW 2013, 2012.
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