KATE BERGIN
Rooms
ROOMS
An exhibition of paintings by Kate Bergin
Home can mean many things. It can be an emotional place or a physical location. It’s the place of memories both good and bad and also the place we can truly be ourselves. And within these homes we create rooms.
Rooms to rest alone, rooms to gather and play and rooms where we share the most basic of our everyday lives and also the most special & extraordinary occasions.
The Living Room, The Rumpus Room, The Dining Room just to name a few. We sit in these rooms inside these houses and watch TV shows about how other people live in their homes and decorate their rooms.
We watch Escape to the Country and imagine moving to an idyllic property in a beautiful small country town. We watch Grand Designs and imagine creating the perfect home. Perhaps we even watch the Housewives series and voyeuristically look through the peepholes of the rich and dramatic.
Real estate websites allow a view into houses for sale where we can pore over floor plans and match them to our perfect lifestyle, designating rooms for all the family and imagining how we will all interact together.
Having just moved from Queensland to Adelaide I can admit to being slightly obsessional about floor plans and dividing the house up into working and living spaces. Bedrooms for everyone and trying to create the perfect balance, at least in an architectural sense. The rest we always hope will follow!
But what I’ve noticed since starting to think about our personal spaces, our domestic jungle, is how the word “Room” is used for political spaces too, my favourite being “The Situation Room”. What a brilliant name for the US 24 hour watch and alert centre that provides intelligence to the President. And the West Wing of the White House has the wonderfully named “The Cabinet Room”.
Perhaps by calling them Rooms underplays their dramatic role and makes them less disconcerting. The simplicity of “The News Room”, “The Staff Room”, “The Bed Room” and the photographer’s “Dark Room” as opposed to the enigmatic “Powder Room” all make me smile.
And then there are rooms that by their very name may create a sense of anxiety…“The Locker Room”, “The Dressing Room”, “The Green Room” and “The Changing Room”. Changing into a sports uniform in the freezing cold of a Mornington Peninsula winter are memories best forgotten.
You might have a favourite room…“The Ballroom”, “The Breakfast Room” or reading a good book in the “Sun Room”. Whatever the room we can be sure that Virginia Woolf’s concept of “A Room of One’s Own” still persists today.
Woolf’s essay related to her dissatisfaction with women’s education and the need for a woman to have a room away from domestic responsibilities. With this last house move I found the perfect room to paint. I’ve never called it My Studio it’s always just been My Room. The only difference these days is that I quite like it being close to all the other rooms and being connected with the comings and goings of the house. It feels less separate and more integrated into the open-planned aspect of our lives these days. Perhaps that the full circle where freedom is the ability to be artist, wife and mother in every room.
Kate Bergin, 2024
The idea behind this exhibition was to create a body of work around the concept of rooms in our homes and how we dissect and define them. I often find when you research what you initially think is a simple notion expands beyond the obvious and becomes more complicated.
The Communications Room or Comms Room is a place where all digital information is stored in companies or government agencies. It’s about as far as you can imagine from a room in a house and yet the word ‘room’ is still used. I wonder if it’s to make it seem less intimidating if we all imagine this data is stored in a place just like a room in your house.
But in this painting the communication is less between digital providers and more about the original meaning of “exchanging information by speaking, writing or some other medium”. And here the seagull, standing on a telephone with wings outstretched above the rabbits below, is communicating a sense of protecting our “smaller” worlds, our relationships with each other and how we communicate.
But just in case the conversation isn’t going too well the black film-noir phone offers an emergency escape, just dial ext 170…but I can’t confirm who’ll be at the other end, watching and listening from another room or whether rabbits and seagulls might suddenly appear as an ad on your next google search!
THE COMMUNICATIONS ROOM 2024 oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm
THE LIVING ROOM
The most wonderful thing about painting animals is finding that utterly intriguing and difficult to photograph creature. I photographed this Sri Lankan leopard at the National Zoo in Canberra. The sun was shining, the leopard quite sensibly was in a shaded area and I had almost given up hope when the camera did that magic trick of focusing in at the exact moment that the leopard deigned to look up and straight into the lens.
Not only is this a rare and exotic creature but the moment itself was rare and completely unexpected. And it is this moment that I take back to the studio to re-create onto canvas. I also take with me the sad knowledge that this extraordinary animal is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as the population is estimated at less than 800 mature individuals, and is possibly declining.
The solitary nature of this leopard and its languid pose made me initially imagine this painting being called “The Lounge Room” but as I began to add the other creatures on the table top the painting started to come alive. The quiet intensity of the leopard became the base for the other louder animals to perform…not unlike some of our living rooms where one person may be the constant and the others flit about and argue or try to outshine each other.
The screaming spider monkey and the owl flapping its wings on top of the black film-noir phone suggesting all types of emotions breaking out. The arch of strings holding spoons reflects the balancing act of everyday life and the spectacles remind us to not overlook those small details that bring a bit of magic into our lives.
The living room is a place where we gather with all our different personalties. We plan our futures, debate the past, come to general agreements and try to navigate all of this and weave it into the narrative of our families. We tell stories, we protect each other and we live together, however haphazardly in our domestic jungle.
THE LIVING ROOM 2024
oil on canvas
100 x 160 cm
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Ihave to admit to being a bit of a reluctant surrealist but I can see the connections in my work and never more so than in this painting. I guess if we are to define surrealism as the depiction of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts then I guess I’d have to agree. Where I think the difference occurs is that I don’t seek to obscure or question the boundaries of reality. I like to think that the paintings remain on the edge of possibility.
When I brought the miniature cabinet into “The Cabinet Room” it sparked the intriguing ideas of scale distortion and of course that leads straight back to Rene Magritte’s “The Listening Room” (another Room!). A huge green apple is confined in a room with absolutely no explanation of why it’s there or even why it’s called “The Listening Room” when all we’re doing is watching…perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps life is just a series of misunderstandings and mysteries, Magritte’s perception of life at the time.
In this painting there’s also a huge apple in a room but here we know the apple isn’t really huge, we know it’s a doll’s house so it’s all perfectly understandable. The elephant is obviously a child’s toy so it’s all very straight forward… a doll’s house with objects and small birds, nothing unexpected everything here is familiar and while in unusual places is perfectly reasonable.
So everything is absolutely ordinary, nothing to look at here, and yet there really is an elephant in the room. It may be a child’s toy but it’s there. Even in the most ordinary and perfectly organised of homes there is always a difficult situation that people don’t want to talk about. We can create giant apples or focus on perfectly formed doll’s houses but we all have an elephant in one of our rooms, somewhere, waiting to be listened to and acknowledged, refusing to be ignored and forgotten.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM 2024 oil on canvas 90 x 100 cm
THE RUMPUS ROOM
The word rumpus is connected with notions of noisy commotion, chaos and uproar. Not generally the things you imagine when you’re thinking about your perfect home. I guess this is why the Rumpus Room was often located in a basement...out of sight out of mind.
These days we tend to call it a recreation room or games room, but essentially it’s still a space for kids to be noisy and rambunctious. A room where a roaring lion would not feel out of place.
The room it was painted in was the previous owners games room where the baby grand piano and billiard table have been left for us to enjoy and become a little noisier than usual. So it’s a painting about a rumpus room painted in a rumpus room.
When the main character of a painting, like this roaring lion is so incredibly strong you can take it in a couple of directions. All the companion cast members can roar along with it or they can gather like a calming force around it.
I had initially imagined a much darker painting but as soon as I added the pink phone I knew it was going to be a softer, more gentle atmosphere even though there was a bellowing lion in the middle of it all.
The phone was balanced by the seated flamingo below, photographed in Atlanta, Georgia during nesting season. To the left of the flamingo is the pink coated statuette of Casanova, purchased from a little costume store on the Grand Canal in Venice. Then the eye travels up the back of the lion to the pink ears of the white rabbit photographed at a petting zoo in Albany Western Australia. Then across to the pink legs and beak of the kookaburra from our garden in Noosa and down to the white ibis photographed at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans who stands next to an owl from the Darling Downs Zoo near Toowoomba who also features small pink details.
This Rumpus Room is a gathering of creatures and objects form all around the world and from one side of Australia to the other. These travel stories are also what we bring back to our rumpus rooms where we often display our souvenirs and treasures. Perhaps we don’t always have to be raucous in our rumpus rooms, perhaps it’s also a place to put our feet up, relax and just be ourselves.
THE RUMPUS ROOM 2024 oil on canvas
185 x 202 cm
THE LANDSEER ROOM
(Featuring, Sir Edwin Landseer’s “Eos”, 1841)
I’ve always admired Landseer’s work and this painting which was commissioned by Queen Victoria as a surprise Christmas gift for Prince Albert particularly resonates for a few reasons.
Queen Victoria wanted to have the Prince’s favourite things brought together for this special painting including his beloved greyhound, Eos who came with him when he moved to England.
By all accounts the marriage between Victoria and Albert was a love match and this gift beautifully expresses the Queen’s understanding of the preciousness of our loyal pets and special objects and how they can help us fit in to an unfamiliar place and also remind us of the things left behind. She must have adored him and been very aware of all he sacrificed to be with her.
Unfortunately as Landseer required the top hat, gloves and walking stick in his studio their absence was noted by the Prince who had the palace turned upside down to find the “missing” items!
I too undertook a similar surprise birthday gift painting commission and was asked to wander through a client’s home when they were on holiday to get a sense of what to paint and to borrow a few things to take back to my studio. Needless to say the client’s wife was disturbed by her “missing” items and after much cajoling was assured they would be found soon.
I’ve always thought that creating a special and very personal commission like this is an enormous privilege. But it’s also a challenge to express on canvas the essence of someone’s life while also retaining your own artistic style. Landseer was able to use his extraordinary skill to create a painting that at first glance seems quite simple but is so perfectly balanced in its striking colour and composition to draw you in and contemplate these beloved objects.
It’s also a beautiful and enduring story of love and is a testament to how the everyday things around us are imbued with our own special stories.
By adding a few of my favourite things on the tabletop below I hope re-presenting “Eos” in this way reminds us that while many things have changed since 1841… love, loyalty and friendship are always our greatest gifts - both to give and to receive.
THE LANDSEER ROOM
(Featuring, Sir Edwin Landseer’s “Eos”, 1841) 2024 oil on canvas
150 x 130 cm
THE DINING ROOM
This is a first for me, I’m writing an essay about a painting that isn’t finished. I have a few ideas about how this painting might go, I’m thinking a sky in the background like a window out to another space with a bird in flight seeking freedom perhaps from a dinner party that hasn’t quite gone to plan in this particular Dining Room.
Moving interstate has meant the timeline for this exhibition has gone a little off course. Usually I finish the large paintings first as this creates the weight in the show and then the mid to small sizes are built around that main theme. But this crocodile has been patiently waiting in the wings, and now confronts me in the studio as I finally begin to find my way with this last painting of the exhibition.
One of the many adventures Mark and I have undertaken over the years was our early move to Cairns. I found a job at an Environmental Education Centre which studied the resident crocodiles in the mangroves that bordered Holloways Beach. Unsurprisingly and like many of us I was terrified of crocodiles until I learnt more about them and began to appreciate their adaptability and survival instincts and if I was to draw a bit of a long bow, not too unlike the instincts it takes to survive as an artist!
My fear, while not completely assuaged, developed a layer of respect for a creature that outlived dinosaurs by around 65 million years. Whilst the crocodile may represent strength, survival and power, there is no denying the dual aspect of their existence and our feelings of fear and loathing towards them. To elevate the crocodile into art is to question not only these ideas but the basic idea of what beauty is.
The white peacock standing on his back creates a sense of Beauty and the Beast . I have adored the white peacock since visiting Isola Bella on Lago Maggiore back in the mid 1990s. Where the castle built by Carlo III for his new wife Isabella was set amongst magnificent gardens filled with white peacocks.
Many years later scrolling through that other dreamworld, eBay, I found a white peacock for sale and purchased it. It came in the mail! It has been waiting over two decades to be painted. Equally the lion footed carved table that the crocodile is sitting on was purchased in Gertrude St Fitzroy back in 2003…also a long time waiting to be painted. And still this painting is not finished! It feels like this painting has been fermenting for almost as long as it took Carlos to create his Palazzo.
But like every great meal or dinner party it’s all in the planning. I’ve placed the crocodile under the tablecloth, attempting to hide, suggesting the sneaking nature of those things we fear. Or maybe the crocodile is just the annoying guest in the dining room overpowering the conversation and we just have to wait until they slide away and leave us to our dinner.
Either way, I hope our Dining Rooms will always be places of ferocious conversation, romantic stories, a place to satisfy our most basic needs and share all that we are…the beauty and the beast that exists in all of us.
THE DINING ROOM 2024
oil on canvas
170 x 205 cm ( work in progress)
THE CABINET ROOM
As a painter of very detailed images it may come as no surprise that I’m also fascinated by the world of miniatures. I try hard not to go down this particular rabbit hole of subject matter as I’d never be able to contemplate a large scale painting if all the objects were of miniature scale. But I do like the play of scale from large format to tiny detail.
With a small painting it’s a constant challenge to create interest in a limited space. Introducing a miniature element adds that little bit of intrigue to draw the viewer in and this delicate cabinet with its spindly legs beautifully mirrors the delicate form of the lesser mousedeer below, which is the world’s smallest hoofed animal. I photographed this one at the Singapore Zoo where I was enamoured by its tiny form, like a magical creature delicately stepping through the leafy undergrowth.
Malaysian and Indonesian folklore often depict the little creature as wily and cunning and able to outwit the bigger and more powerful tigers and crocodiles, not unlike Aesop’s tale of the tortoise and the hare and the ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Which brings me to that other Cabinet Room, the political space for decision making. In the United States it’s located in the West Wing of the White House near the Oval Office and is the meeting place for the President’s advisors and officials. The UK Prime Minister also holds weekly meetings in his Cabinet Room at 10 Downing St and here in Australia it is located opposite the Prime Minister’s office in Parliament House. Let’s hope they all have the strong foundation of the tortoise holding them up but I’m sure too that it’s a never-ending balancing act.
Perhaps I’d rather think about that other Cabinet Room which was a private room in a manor house or palace that was furnished with books and works of art next to a gentleman’s bed chamber, the female equivalent was a boudoir. I think we should bring these rooms back. My next house will have a dedicated Cabinet Room full of books and art, that actually sounds like my lounge room… how wonderful, I have a Cabinet Room I just didn’t realise it which is just as well because I’m definitely not moving house again!
THE CABINET ROOM 2024
oil on canvas
80 x 60 cm
THE DRESSING
ROOM
Before I started at the Victorian College of the Arts I was accepted into RMIT’s Fashion Design degree course. It was what I’d dreamed of for years, I’d always imaged being a fashion designer. But there was also an internal whispering of being an artist but it seemed too big a step from the safe confines of home and secondary school.
But as fate would have it in the first semester, I undertook a life drawing class and someone from the Art Department at RMIT said they were painting from these sketches and I realised I wanted to paint this life model not sew clothes for her. And right then the course of my life was completely re-set.
But we don’t simply leave one dream for another, they layer themselves upon us. I’ve never lost that love and passion for clothes and how they define and transform us. This painting, “The Dressing Room” brings these two dreams together.
My wardrobe isn’t too dissimilar from this painting, lots of flowing soft clothes (no doubt from my many years living in the tropics!) and also that other side of me that comes through in animal print, black velvet and stronger more defined outfits (probably from growing up in Melbourne’s post-punk era!)
This is what I’ve always loved about fashion, that you can express yourself in different ways depending on your mood or who you wanted to project yourself as, it can be very empowering to be in control of that image.
But of course, The Dressing Room can also be a place of excruciating torment. Yes I’ve been there too with uncooperative toddlers. I have a memory of a beautiful woman coming up to me in a shop’s dressing room as I was trying to placate a child and find an outfit for an exhibition opening, assuring me, “You’ll eventually float back up and breathe again”. I still have the velvet jacket I bought that day and it reminds me 15 years on that she was right - we get through all these moments in life and who knew the dressing room could be a place of knowledge and kindness.
As I grow older it’s also a place where I may see myself from too many disagreeable angles but it’s OK it’s just me, nothing that a pretty dress or a great suit won’t fix or at least help garner the confidence to face the world as either a tiger or a flamingo or even a Tasmanian devil!
THE DRESSING ROOM 2024
oil on canvas
160 x 140 cm
Who doesn’t hate a waiting room, there is nothing more frustrating than having to wait. As Tom Petty’s told us “The waiting is the hardest part”. The Kinks were “Tired of Waiting for You” back in the 60’s while Lou Reed was “Waiting for the Man”, The Doors were “Waiting for the Sun” and Missy Higgins was aware that “Everyone’s Waiting”. In music there is an awful lot of waiting and so too in literature and movies and of course famously in Samuel Beckett’s play, “Waiting for Godot”. Beckett himself described the play, “It is a game in order to survive.”
Just as a little aside here. An artist I was introduced to back in art school, Avigdor Arikha was a great friend of Samual Beckett and Arikha’s daughter Alba was Beckett’s godchild. Arikha painted the things around him, everyday objects and one of these beautifully sparse paintings was of a gift Beckett had given Alba at her Christening… a small silver spoon engraved with Sam on the handle, a treasure from his own childhood. A small seed planted in my own mind that waited patiently and eventually developed into my own spoon collection that now features in all my paintings.
Waiting is a part of the human condition, both endlessly frustrating and sad but also accompanied with the notion of hope, that whatever we are waiting for will eventually come to us. We try to teach our children and ourselves the value of delayed gratification to develop emotional intelligence and self control.
In this painting the chimpanzee does look like he’s been waiting for a while and seems resigned to more waiting - perhaps there’s even a touch of bemusement at his situation. There is a single spoon that leans against him and the spectacles he holds in his mouth suggests wisdom but I fear the call he is waiting will never come and it may end the same way as Beckett’s play…
“Well, shall we go /Yes, let’s go/ (They do not move)”.
THE WAITING ROOM 2024 oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm
A GATHERING FOR A JOURNEY
This unlikely gathering of creatures poised on the table top reminds us to be ready for those unexpected moments in life that may take us in a new direction and onto new adventures.
The ship balanced on the back of the nyala has a maritime flag raised with the international signal, “I wish to communicate with you”. Ive also seen it listed as “You should stop your vessel instantly”. Perhaps on the high seas one is necessary for the other. Perhaps too, the idea of stopping to communicate in this fast-paced world is something to consider. The 1940s bakelite phone on top of the tortoise alludes to this slowing down of life to notice not only other ships around us but also the small and beautiful details.
The spectacles that hang from the ear of the nyala reinforces this aspect of looking at what is sometimes overlooked… the perfect peel of an apple, the intricacies of a knotted string or a teaspoon whose handle is a pair of golf sticks with a tiny golf ball at the end, a small trophy from a long ago day on the course.
So while a penguin balances on an apple and a figurine of Casanova (a treasure picked up in Venice from my own travels many years ago) peers curiously at a lemur, the wise owl at the top knows that all journeys whether travelling the sea or travelling to the supermarket will always be more adventurous when we slow down and notice the magical details.
A GATHERING FOR A JOURNEY 2023 oil on canvas
150 x 130 cm
THE COMMUNICATIONS ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm page 4-5 Table of Contents
LIVING ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm page 6-7
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 90 x 100 cm page 8-9
THE RUMPUS ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 185 x 202 cm page 10-11
THE LANDSEER ROOM (Featuring, Sir Edwin Landseer’s “Eos”, 1841) 2024 oil on canvas, 150 x 130 cm page 12-13
THE
THE DINING ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 170 x 205 cm
page 14-15
THE CABINET ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm page 16-17
THE DRESSING ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 160 x 140 cm
page 18-19
THE WAITING ROOM 2024 oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm
page 20-21
A GATHERING FOR A JOURNEY 2023 oil on canvas, 150 x 130 cm
page 22-23
1968 Melbourne, Australia
Lives and works Adelaide, South Australia
STUDIES
1990-92 Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Bach. of Fine Art (Painting)
1990-91 VCA Art History Study Tour to Europe
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Rooms, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2023 Table of Contents, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney
2022 Selected Works, Artbay Gallery, Queenstown, New Zealand
2021 Royal Gala Performance, Arthouse Gallery. Sydney
2020 The Pleasure of Your Company, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2019 Tabletop Variations, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney
2017 Make Believe, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne & Sydney
2016 Wild Life, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2015 The Company of Unlikely Travelllers, Sydney Contemporary Mossgreen Gallery
2014 Unstill Lives, Mossgreen Gallery
2013 Tabletop Performances & Other Balancing Acts, Mossgreen Gallery
2012 Strange Relations, Melbourne Art Fair, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Wild Things, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2010 The Spoon Collectors, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide; Tabletop Variations, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Hunting & Collecting, fortyfive downstairs, Melbourne
2007 The Collector, Mahoney’s Galleries, Melbourne
2005 From the Studio, Studio Exhibition, Melbourne
2003 Still Life in Painting, Studio Exhibition, Melbourne
2001 Clockwise, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2000 A Time for Flight & Rest, Cafe La, Hotel Sofitel, Melbourne
1999 The Pursuit of Happiness, Cairns Regional Gallery
1996 Menu, Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland; Still Life in Painting, Gallery 101, Melbourne
1995 Square Paintings, Crawford Gallery, Sydney
1994 Recent Paintings, Crawford Gallery, Sydney
1993 Recent Paintings, Crawford Gallery, Sydney
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014 ART in Embassies, United States Embassy, Canberra
2010 Net Work, Ballarat Art Gallery
2006 Linden Postcard Show, St Kilda
2005 Linden Postcard Show, St Kilda
2004 Mahoneys Galleries, Melbourne
2002 Mahoneys Galleries, Melbourne
2002 Art in Australia, Works From the Collection, VCA Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Xmas Show, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney
2000 Seventh Contemporary Art Fair, (Australian Galleries), Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
1999 Fine Painting & Sculpture, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1998 Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, (Gallery 101), Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
1998 End to End, Six Far North Queensland Artists, Gallery 101, Melbourne
1997 Fields of Vision, Doggett Street Studios, Brisbane
1997 Gals Work, Recent Acquisitions by Female Artists, St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne
1996 Artists of North Queensland, Cairns Regional Gallery
1996 Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, (Crawford Gallery), Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
1994 Gallery Artists, Crawford Gallery, Sydney
1994 Fourth Contemporary Art Fair, (Crawford Gallery), Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
1991 Images of Women, Gryphon Gallery, University of Melbourne; Award Show, VCA Gallery
1991 Small Works, Wide Visions, Downlands College, Toowoomba, Qld
COLLECTIONS
Artbank
Art Gallery of New South Wales, gifted by Margaret Olley
Bendigo Art Gallery
Brisbane City Hall
City of Albany
City of Port Phillip
Colac Area Health
Department of Education, Queensland Downlands College
Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale
Genazzano FCJ College, Kew Hotel Sofitel, Melbourne Lowensteins
Mercure Harbourside
Victorian College of the Arts
AWARDS & PRIZE EXHIBITIONS
2013 Finalist, The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, SA Museum
2013 Finalist, Sulman Prize, finalist, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2012 Finalist, Gold Award, Rockhampton Art Gallery Finalist, R&M McGivern, Maroondah Art Gallery
2011 Finalist, Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2011 Finalist, Arthur Guy Memorial Art Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery (Winner, People’s Choice)
2010 Winner, Albany Art Prize, Vancouver Arts Centre, WA
2010 Finalist, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Gallery
2009 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Art Gallery
2009 Finalist, Arthur Guy Memorial Art Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery
2009 Highly Commended, The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, South Australian Museum
2009 Finalist, Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery
2009 Finalist, Mt Buller Art Prize,
2009 First Prize, Corangamarah Art Prize
2009 Flannagan Art Prize, Ballarat;
2009 Finalist, R&M McGivern, Maroondah Art Gallery
2004 First Prize, Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale, Rosemount Art of Food Award
2001 First Prize, Australian Artist Magazine Competition
1997 Finalist, Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Irvin Gallery, Sydney
1995 Finalist, The Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1995 2nd Prize Keith & Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship, VCA Gallery
1995 2nd Prize Victorian Tapestry Workshop design for Melbourne Town Hall
1994 Finalist, Gold Coast City Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery
1993 Finalist, Alice Prize, Alice Springs
1992 Finalist, Artworkz 4, Gallery 101, Melbourne;
1992 Finalist, Alice Prize, Alice Springs
1992 Mid Year Award, Victorian College of the Arts
1991 Theodur Urbach Award, Victorian College of the Arts
GRANTS & STUDIO RESIDENCES
2002 Shortlisted for Nillumbik Residency Program, Victoria
1999-2000 Professional Development Grant, Kick Arts Collective, Arts Queensland
1997 Australia Council Overseas Studio Residency - Besozzo, Italy
1996 Regional Arts Development Fund Project Grant, Arts Queensland
Please
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to Scott and Sophie who have been so supportive, patient and understanding during this interstate move from Queensland to South Australia and have continued to motivate me, visit the new studio and believe in me all the way.
To my husband Mark Stewart who remained alone in Queensland for months to complete the house sale, our 21 year old Riley who has continued his university studies in Brisbane while supporting our move and to our 14 year old Rothko who has bravely started a new school and helped me complete these paintings. Team Stewart you’ve done me proud.
Thank you too to Sam Roberts for the beautiful photographs of the paintings in Adelaide, and to Ross Eason, my photographer in Queensland for over 10 years, who photographed “A Gathering for a Journey” and his wife Judy for her beautiful friendship.
All my love too to those friends on the other end of the phone who talked me through some tough days… we got there in the end. And last but not least thank you to those who have come to this exhibition and those who have offered their support from afar. And also to the extraordinary people on Instagram who have given such generous and thoughtful comments which often gave me an extra boost on those long, quiet days and nights in the studio. What an amazing world it is…XO
ISBN | 978-0-6454880-9-8 © copyright 2024
SCOTT LIVESEY GALLERIES
610 High Street I Prahran VIC 3181 I Tel: +61 3 9824 7770 info@scottliveseygalleries.com I www.scottliveseygalleries.com
Catalogue compiled by Scott Livesey & Sophie Foley
Photography by Sam Roberts
