Sequoia Choate
Abbotsleigh
BACKYARD RAMBLE
Painting
Acrylic on board
My body of work, Backyard Ramble, was inspired by the wild bushland that I have grown up with. I always find the bush centres me as I ramble through the disordered beauty of its chaotic colours and unique flora. My intent in using a pointillist, impressionist style in small-scale works was to express the delicate details of colour and light, and the intimacy I feel with nature. The linear curation of my works imposes an element of order within the disorder, as if I’m opening a pathway through the bush, for the audience to ramble visually through my work.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Georges Seurat, Mary Tonkin, Angelo Franco, Paul Signac, Sue Bannister, June Tupicoff, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, William Robinson.
Marker's Commentary
Backyard Ramble is a triptych of paintings confidently brought to life in acrylic on canvas board. The three paintings traverse an Australian garden scene and capture a sense of place in bold luminous colour, embedded in impressionist painting practice. The journey across each panel creates an intimate sojourn with a backyard bush landscape reflective of the artist's connectedness with the space. The highly sophisticated composition illustrates the natural world and the bushland narrative through compositional placement and pattern, offering the audience a glimpse into a moment in time carefully crafted through the exceptionally skilled pointillist application of paint. Backyard Ramble offers areas of respite where the eye can rest in larger passages of colour, mimicking an experiential immersion in nature. Light and shadow, combined with the vast array of colour dabs, highlights the sophisticated painting practice within this body of work.