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SEEING the light
LAUREN JONES WAS still a fl edgling art student when she experienced a turning point that would launch her career.
It came in the form of renowned modernist realist painter and Archibald fi nalist Hong Fu, who was delivering a workshop about the alla prima oil painting technique to students of the Sunshine Coast TAFE college where Lauren was studying a diploma of visual arts.
“That was really a pivotal moment for me, with my new-found oil medium, and even the alla prima technique,” says Lauren, who now paints exclusively in this style and medium.
“I was inspired by it, and really encouraged by the artist [Hong Fu] to pursue a career in art. I loved art, but it was the real moment where I thought, okay, maybe I can do this more seriously.
“I was also quite young, and after the workshop he came to me saying how well I painted and how impressed he was, so it was that real, concrete moment for my family to encourage me in my career.”
After fi nishing her studies on the Coast, which included a creative writing degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Lauren completed a degree in fi ne arts at Monash University in Melbourne – a move she credits to her meeting with Hong Fu (who, to Lauren’s delight, even attended her graduation).
Now living in the Noosa hinterland and working from her home studio, Lauren creates evocative and impressionistic portraits and still life scenes in oils, which have been her preference from the minute she fi rst dabbled in them.
“I think it’s the colour in oils – even when they dry, they’re the most vibrant colour you can get in paint,” she says. “And just the whole quality of it – I like how it moves, I like the texture of it, I like the versatility of it. I love the stroke and texture you can get with the oil paint.”
Meaning ‘at the fi rst’ in Italian, alla prima is a wet-on-wet technique where the painting is completed in a single session using decisive brushstrokes. This helps inform her style, Lauren explains.
“It’s a real sort of impressionistic approach to painting,” she says. “Your strokes can be quite broad, or few, to explain a lot, without getting too tight. I guess [my style is] sort of impressionistic, loose, fi gurative work.
“I think my style has changed a lot over the last 10 years. After a year or two, I found the looser impressionistic work to really resonate with me. I feel like I’ve found the style that is me.
“Because it’s a quick, loose way of painting, and especially because I’ve worked on a lot of smaller-sized work, I can do those really quickly. Once I start I do get into the rhythm of painting. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but I just keep going and see what happens. I rarely revisit an artwork once it’s GIFTS | PET PORTRAITS | PRINTS | ORIGINAL ART • STUDIO VISITS BY APPOINTMENT • COMMISSIONS WELCOME
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done – I’m onto something else. It’s more of a fl uid way of working I suppose.
“I’m really interested in creating bodies of works that are more meaningful and they have an idea behind them, and they have some type of message.”
Becoming Unfamiliar, a series of portraits by Lauren that explores the concept of forgetting and dementia, perfectly illustrates this philosophy. The portraits are hauntingly beautiful in their depiction of the inner emotions of their subjects. Thanks to the series Lauren was awarded the 2021 Bentley 40 Under 40 art prize at the Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre.
“I really love painting portraiture,” she says. “I’ve painted faces for a long time; I love capturing a feeling. I really love the narrative that a face can tell – the inner thoughts or character of a person – I’m interested in that.”
In the last year, however, Lauren’s work has diversifi ed to still life, inspired by the natural environment and the refl ection of light.
Her most recent series is Golden Native, a series of still life
Lena Yarinkura, Camp Dogs. Photo by Scott Burrows. Image courtesy of the artist and UAP
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Clare Poppi, Bio-headpiece (2021). Image courtesy of artisan. Photo by Michelle Bowden.
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“I’m definitely interested in learning and challenging myself. ”
works featuring the distinctive golden wattle in various bottles and vases. “I really liked the symbolism of the wattle – unity and resilience,” she says. “And I particularly like painting glass; I really like the way the light behaves with glass and the different colours that make the form and the shadow that plays with it too. I’m drawn to glass bottles especially – I’ve been having fun with that lately.”
For the still life works, Lauren styles her subjects in her studio and then, when the light is perfect, a photo shoot captures images she works from. (It helps that Lauren’s husband Ryan Jones is a photographer, and is happy to assist in the process.)
“My inspirations change between each series, but I suppose it’s a lot about light,” she says. “With the golden wattle, I was really interested in a lot of the dark backgrounds, and how that made the golden wattle’s little yellow balls glow. I’m interested in the mood they create.”
While most of her work has typically been in miniature (15 by 20 centimetres) she has also been challenging herself to do larger works recently.
Currently, Lauren is working in the concept phase of a new body of still life works for a summer show at Michael Reid Northern Beaches gallery in Sydney, as well as working on a “small body of portraits”.
She is looking forward to more exhibitions in the coming year, and says she has been overwhelmed by the response to her work from local and interstate buyers, who have been snapping up her art works almost as soon as they are released.
Online gallery Fenton & Fenton also shortlisted her this year as an artist to watch in its Rising Talent awards.
“I’ve got so many plans for next year – group shows and solo shows,” she says. “I’m really excited to see what happens. I’m defi nitely interested in learning and challenging myself, and growing my art practice.
“The art world is a strange one, and I’ve been lucky to keep getting opportunities.”
See Lauren’s work at Noosa Regional Gallery, Level 1, 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin. 5329 6145 or noosaregionalgallery.com.au
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