ARTIST’ S STAT E M E N T My paintings are not abstract, nor are they landscapes. They use abstraction as a method and the experience of landscape as a source. They reject the convention of landscape but remain grounded in country. They are concerned with environment rather than view. My subjects are internal reflections. Isolation gives me time to reflect. Living in the landscape escalates my intention. A five kilometre radius of the property walked and thought about constantly, light and weather the muse. Three large dams with ever-changing shapes of light and dark sit below my studio window as visual prompts. The nearby railway line that closed several years ago makes unheralded appearances, once so much part of hearing now ghostly in memory. Thirty giant spotted gums drop their gaudy leaves compelling me to stop, pick them up and bring them to the studio for their spectacular abstract forms and colour, their bark mottled and rowdy. The slow growth of a painting using layers of encaustic and oil pigment takes time but produces the transparency I’m after. All of these aspects define my work and lead to the final images.
Juliet Stone July 2016
Left Into the Night, 2016 Oil on canvas, 123 x 80cm Cover image Rain Cloud, 2016 Oil on canvas, 74 x 69cm
TH E A F TE RN O ON OF EXTR AVAGANT LIGHT In 2005, when Juliet Stone’s retrospective exhibition Changes was on show in Bunbury Regional Art Galleries, I recall respected colleague John Stringer describing her work as ‘bold and masculine’. A remark like this could raise hackles, for it appears to imply women artists are predisposed to produce work that embodies fragility rather than strength. But I believe his intent was to acknowledge an assured and vigorous approach to painting – an approach described previously by Philippa O’Brien as gestural, robust and intuitive, one that conveys a sense of presence and emotional power. 1 These characteristics underpin Juliet Stone’s paintings and drawings. Given she trained in the UK in the 1960s with German-born artist Frank Auerbach who is renowned for his expressionistic textural paintings, Juliet’s inclination towards a similar aesthetic is understandable. ‘Frank Auerbach told me I could paint and I should give up all else [to] live and breathe painting… he encouraged me in every way, even taking me sketching at weekends in the London Docks, to my first major exhibition at the Tate… Also to Covent Garden when it was a fruit market where, at seventeen I sat on the pavement and sketched.’ 2 Born in Exeter, Devon, Juliet attended art school in Kent before moving to Chicago then Perth, WA in 1963, where she became involved with the contemporary art scene whilst nurturing a young child. An exhibition at the Firestation in 1968 brought her to the attention of renowned gallerist and art dealer Rose Skinner, who became a great friend and influence; exhibiting her work and encouraging her to mix with prominent members of the Perth art scene – Robert Juniper, Brian McKay and George Haynes. In 1985 Juliet moved to an eighty-acre property in Brookhampton near Donnybrook with her late husband Nial Wilmot. Following a break from the art scene for a few years, she resumed painting in the early 1990s, encouraged by her sister who lives in France and former neighbour Mary Knott, whose architect husband designed and built the studio adjoining the white weatherboard cottage where Juliet lives and works. For several years she became involved in the now defunct Bunbury Regional Gallery Artists’ Group and exhibited regularly at the gallery through the 1990s. Since 1998 she has been represented by Gomboc Gallery in Middle Swan and her work has also been shown in Fremantle, Albany, Darwin, Sydney and France. ‘There was a big shift [in my work] when I came here; the light, it just opened my eyes, so I wanted to paint even more.’ 3 Although she loves to travel and visits her sister in France annually, Juliet is very attached to her property in Brookhampton. She acknowledges Nial was very supportive of her painting. Aspects of the rural property feature habitually in her work and she draws inspiration from her immediate surroundings constantly.
Juliet’s visual diaries provide valuable insight into her sources of inspiration and working process. They contain thoughts, sketches, newspaper cuttings and snippets of correspondence that reflect her ideas and interests; quotes from writers and artists that refer to constant renewal and taking risks, letting go and being more abstract; evidence of renewed resolve when motivation subsides – a revealing and instructive account of the ebb and flow of an artist’s drive and the dedication required to spend intense periods of time in the studio, followed by elation when the work is complete. Often the notations are personal and I feel privileged to have been given access to Juliet’s visual diaries. They verify the significance of special places and features in the landscape. Three dams visible from her studio window appear repeatedly in paintings and drawings that contemplate the ever-changing effect of light and weather on water and nearby hills. Imagination and memory illuminated by afternoon light, moonlit shadows and ‘secrets of the soul.’ Deliberations on artist statements for a group show in Bunbury in 1998 and a solo exhibition at Gomboc in 2000 illustrate the recurring persistence of this theme in her work: ‘I have drawn from my immediate surroundings. I see a line of dams. Night brings a landscape of dark lunar shadows … the intensity and quality of surface light a constant inspiration.’ 4 Such statements reveal how Juliet translates a deep attachment to place into expressive images that evoke a physical landscape and inner emotions. Her response to visual stimuli, form and colour, light and weather is reflective but never literal or representational. Thus painting is both a medium and form of expression where land and water are metaphors for an internal landscape, and colour and brushstrokes convey the visceral nature of an intimate relationship with the environment. ‘What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things …it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.’ 5 According to Ron Gomboc, Juliet is highly regarded for her ability to portray the emotional power of the landscape and a sense of place, which she achieves through her use of light and shade, colour and simplicity of composition to depict its vastness and natural phenomena.6 David Bromfield has described her work as being ‘rooted in a highly coherent attitude to painting as experience. Rather than represent the country through a series of familiar conventions she works with the landscape to produce paintings which have a life of their own.’ 7 ‘My paintings are intuitive and evolve slowly on the canvas. I have to be moved by the subject I see or feel before I can transfer it.’ 8 Materiality is very important to Juliet’s process. Whilst the local landscape remains a constant, experimenting with new ways of mixing natural pigments with beeswax and linseed oil to create colour and texture evolves. She describes this as finding a way through the medium. It may start with a reference to something in her visual diary that
triggers ‘the shape of thought’ which then appears on the canvas or paper; building up layers of pigment and wax until the painting emerges. Juliet claims this encaustic process is instinctive and she knows no other way to work – a long, slow process whereby she spends up to three months on each painting and works on several at one time, moving from one to the other. Such dedication and discipline to produce enough work for an exhibition can take up to two years. Each day begins with a five kilometre walk around her property, she’s in her studio by nine and works until late afternoon. ‘I think there’s something magic about painting and how it emerges … I even surprise myself, and there’s nothing like the adrenalin rush when it’s finished.’ 9 Whilst responding to landscape is neither new nor exceptional, this exhibition shows how a ubiquitous subject remains fresh when it retains an enduring relevance to artists and audiences. On that basis, Juliet’s enraptured response to her surroundings conjures a sense of the universal and the particular because she invites us to engage with colour, form and composition and enjoy a moment of aesthetic indulgence. ‘If someone can stand in front of your painting and get something out of it, if for a moment they can stop and get lost in your painting, that’s wonderful, that’s all one can hope for.’ 10 Diana McGirr July 2016
Footnotes 1. Philippa O’Brien, “Juliet Stone paintings and pastels,” Artlink 19:1 (1999), 87–88 2. Juliet Stone, visual diary, July 2000 3. Juliet Stone, in discussion with author, November 16, 2009 4. Juliet Stone, visual diary, October 1998 – October 2000 5. Juliet Stone, visual diary, January 22, 2007 6. Ron Gomboc, e-mail to artist July 6, 2016 7. David Bromfield, “Survey 2010 Blog,” Brown Art Consultants, posted August 21–23, 2009. 8. Juliet Stone, visual diary, November 5, 2001 9. Juliet Stone, in discussion with author, November 16, 2009 10. Ibid
Top right White Owl, 2015 Oil on canvas, 113 x 113cm Bottom right Sky Storm, 2015 Oil on canvas, 123 x 80cm
Top left Idyll, 2016 Oil on canvas, 113 x 113cm Bottom left Train Closure, 2015 Encaustic & oil pigment on fabriano paper, 60 x 70cm Below Fecundity, 2015 Oil on canvas, 113 x 113cm
Above Aeriel, 2016 Oil on canvas, 112 x 112cm Top right The Afternoon of Extravagant Light, 2016 Oil on canvas, 123 x 80cm Bottom Right Aboreal, 2015 Oil on canvas, 113 x 113cm
Top left Study From France, 2015 Watercolour on watercolour paper, 30 x 22cm Bottom left Living Above The Water, 2015 Gouache on paper, 29 x 41cm Below Towards the Quiet Trees, 2016 Oil on canvas, 76 x 70cm
Above Muse, 2016 Oil on canvas, 113 x 113cm
BIOGRAPHY Juliet Stone was born in Exeter, England and studied painting at Kent Institute of Art & Design under Frank Auerbach. She moved to Perth in 1963, living and painting in Darlington during 1970s until her move to Brookhampton in 1985. Since 1998, she has been represented by Gomboc Gallery, where she has had five solo exhibitions. Diana McGirr curated a major retrospective of her work in 2005 at Bunbury Regional Art Galleries, entitled Changes. She has shown in group exhibitions at Bunbury Regional Art Galleries, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Vancouver Arts Centre, and Gomboc Gallery. She has also exhibited Internationally at Les FĂŞtes de la Seine, Paris (1999), JournĂŠe des Peinters, Municipal, Herisson France (2001) and in the Fulham Society of Artists Autumn Exhibition, London (1999) Her work is in numerous public and private collections. Juliet is represented by Gomboc Gallery in Western Australia.
ARTIST ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Juliet Stone would like to acknowledge Diana McGirr and Terri and Ron Gomboc for their continued support of her painting, as well as Julian Bowron and Caroline Lunel for their assistance with instigating and developing this exhibition. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Bunbury Regional Art Galleries Staff Director: Julian Bowron City of Bunbury Collections Curator: Caroline Lunel Education Officer: Michele Grimston Exhibition Curator: Alisa Blakeney Arts and Cultural Development Officer: Anna Edmundson Exhibitions Officer: Simon Long Gallery Officer: Donna Fortescue Casual Gallery Attendants: Dean Buck, Suellen Turner, Stephanie Lloyd-Smith, Dan Kus Catalogue Design by Dixon and Smith / Catalogue Photography by David Bailey
Bunbury Regional Art Galleries is owned and managed by the City of Bunbury Bunbury Regional Art Galleries is on Noongar Land Juliet Stone is represented by Gomboc Gallery ISBN: 978-0-9953569-0-0
64 WI T TE N OOM STR EET BUNBURY - O PEN DAILY 10-4 artgaller y@bunbur y. w a. gov. au / b ra g.org.au / 08 9792 7323