Freedom and Expansion, Lenore Howard, 2009

Cover image: Dissolve series, acrylic and oil on timber and perspex, dimensions variable, 2009.

4: Resonate series, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1000 x 1200 mm, 2009.

8: Dissolve series, acrylic and oil on timber and perspex, dimensions variable, 2009.

1: Resonate series, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1000 x 1200 mm, 2009.

5: Dissolve series, acrylic and oil on timber and perspex, dimensions variable, 2009.

Background image: Resonate series, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1000 x 1200 mm, 2009. (detail)

2: Resonate series, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1000 x 1200 mm, 2009.

6: Dissolve series, acrylic and oil on timber and perspex, dimensions variable, 2009.

Back cover: Exploration series, acrylic and oil on canvas board, 250 x 300 mm, 2009.

3: Resonate series, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1000 x 1200 mm, 2009.

7: Dissolve series, acrylic and oil on timber and perspex, dimensions variable, 2009.

Photography: Michael Marzik

1500 mm

250 mm

L E N O R E H O WA R D

PO I N T S O F V I E W c o n t e m p o r a r y

l a n d s c a p e s

L e n o r e H O W A R D .E d w a r d K O U M A N S .A l l y s o n R E Y N O L DS KickArts is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

L E N O R E H O WA R D Freedom and Expansion The horizon line stretching to Infinity creates limitless possibilities.

These landscapes delve into the abstract world of energy where thoughts and emotion are the mountains and valleys that enrich or destroy our lives.

Repeated patterns swirl like whirlpools around our conscious and unconscious beliefs, presenting pathways to expand or remain fixed. Our thoughts are seeds which, when planted, manifest into beauty or disarray. I have never been interested in recording the landscape for its own sake, but in the past used landscape to symbolically imply something else. For now, all references to form are completely gone – no halfway measures indicating a subtle stylized house or tree. These works are responses to an unseen but intuitively felt realm.

Freedom and Expansion has three main components. The black, white and grey Resonate paintings provided an opportunity for me to pause and breathe after completing a major body of work last year. I liken them to drawings, which allow ideas to shift and develop. It was timely to withdraw and initiate a meditative ‘silence’ and, as colour can be distracting, it became necessary to minimise the palette. The presence of a tropical cyclone serendipitously generated a continuous curtain of rain providing this cocoon where I could hibernate and reflect.

Colour, however, is addictive and elusive. Seeking those combinations that sit together in harmony with the injection of an erratic discord remains an ongoing quest. Each painting brings different challenges and at no time am I ever guaranteed a result.

Developing compositions on the small Exploration series enabled me to easily view the entire surface at every moment, which is quite different from working on a larger dimension. The flexibility of this size encourages new ideas and possibilities to arrive or dissipate in rapid succession. As in the larger works, paint is layered on and scraped back revealing many surprises.

1

5

2

6

3

7

4

8

For some time I have been curious about dissolving edges and, while this already occurs in all the works, there was a drive to abstract the external perimeter. The move from traditional fixed rectangles and squares promotes a sense of limitless, expanding space. These cut-out shapes are a natural progression and the Dissolve series has energised my approach. While the surface within those shapes was originally delineated into loose geometric areas, the Exploration series soon had a direct influence and those initial designs have been temporarily abandoned, however I may revisit them in the future.

Each exhibition brings its own character and I envisage a private landscape that continually seeks freedom and expansion.