The Wilkins Collection

My artwork reflects my interest in form, nature and change. My series uses dominant geometric forms juxtaposed with biomorphic shapes, representing man's interference with nature. My teacher encouraged me to be true to my delight in media experimentation and to explore abstraction.

My artwork reflects my interest in form, nature and change. My series uses dominant geometric forms juxtaposed with biomorphic shapes, representing man's interference with nature. My teacher encouraged me to be true to my delight in media experimentation and to explore abstraction.

What could cause you to scream or stare? A sexist world of attitudes and stereotypes and above all the famous expectations of being a FEMALE. Why can't I be a human being with no labels and no roles? You are a psycho if you scream, if that's the case then we all live in a psychotic world.

Images of the working Australian farmer have shaped our cultural identity. Through my work I wanted to portray a working farmer and his family, their connection to the land and their animals, to capture the unforgiving landscape they live and work in. I wanted to show the cultural context that shapes a man and gives him the toughness and resilience to tirelessly work in the Australian outback. The poem The shearing is now over by Beverly Woodman inspired and connects the elements of my work.

My artwork is an investigation of my surroundings and an interpretation of the way in which changes in the environment can affect an individual's mood cycle. Each panel descends from light to dark; the lighter tones represent sweltering heat and steam rising off the ground and the dark tones convey stormy temperamental conditions. My surroundings have had a large influence on me personally and my artwork is an expression of that.

My work is concerned with capturing the energy and emotion created by light and movement and creating illusional, highly abstract images from everyday subject matter. Most importantly, my photographs were not manipulated at all: I achieved my final images by simple hand-held photographic techniques.

I decided that my family would be the theme of my work because I wanted to do a subject that had special significance to me. The technique I used was quite time consuming. I cut out newspaper and rubbed charcoal onto the pieces, then reassembled them on a large roll of paper. At times it seemed never-ending, but I'm glad I persevered.

I felt a need to capture the figures as in a time frame, to capture the movement or position before release, to express my response to it. I was concerned with the unglamorous realities of life and wanted to represent a deep feeling of disgust and betrayal.

My artwork is a subjective and structural response to the landscape that surrounds me. These landscapes have recently been affected by droughts and floods and I have watched the land recover from these natural disasters. I have been inspired by Australian artists Fred Williams and Arthur Boyd. My aim has been to explore surface and colour in each work.

What had begun as a project to justify and consider my life, through a study of myself, my family and my environment, was soon transformed into a means of recording a most dramatic year. I was initially inspired by William Dobel's use of paint – his dry-brush technique and scraping back of near dry layers of paint – also by his distortion of his subject's features to bring out their character. The disorientation I initially felt was expressed through a series of irrationalities and exaggerations of colour and light reminiscent of Giorgio de Chirico. The last two works record my becoming a Christian – the storm clouds clear and the road out of darkness is set upon. The journey is nowhere near completed but has just begun.

Flash to me is a gesture drawing that expresses the way I feel about figure drawing. I have learned to love the simple, uncorrupted purity of line. By putting down a 10-second to 2-minute pose the result is like a photograph, an instant, and carries feelings and emotions, expressed through the weight of my hand.

I used print making for my 3 unit major work, [inspired by] doing etchings, monotypes and collographs in year 11. [Since] I have lived at Balmoral Beach all my life, I decided to use marine life as a theme [and] took [interesting] pictures of fish, I did all the monotypes then decided to do the collographs in the skeletal form of each fish. I decided to link the two works together [with] strips of dutch goldleaf [then] printed a set of collograph strips across them and embossed a border. I learned that the process of print making is not simple but the end result displays a very rewarding and satisfying art process.

My artwork comments on environmental issues associated with renovation. Until the 1980s many houses in Australia were built with asbestos due to its low cost and ease in installation. Hidden Beneath invites the audience to question and reflect on risks associated with removal of this hazardous and even fatal product. Using layers and manipulation of surface texture the work communicates the fear of what may be hidden below the surface. Through sanding one can see the fissures beneath, the tears that erupt through the seemingly once perfect surface, hinting at the threat to inhabitants' health, wellbeing and comfort.

Con-Shoe-Mer explores our world's increasingly globalised culture and how individuals form their identity within it. The medium of printmaking was chosen as it allowed me to reproduce prints, representing shoes as mass produced consumer products, while also providing variations portraying the ways in which people use commodities to express individuality. The work is a reflection of my love for shoes and of my realisation that no matter how hard we try to be unique, we are ultimately just providing another link in the chain of pop-culture and consumerism which is rapidly tying together our entire world.

As a result of my Dutch background I developed an interest in the European-Australian connection. The shields or segments of a map and the materials used reflect the passage of time and the progress of the relationship between the two cultures occupying this land. My teachers taught me to 'Think big!'

My body of work was inspired by scenes from classic horror movies and the idea that somebody is always watching. The scratchy, slightly blurred black and white images invite the audience to allow their senses and paranoia to take over and to question what they are seeing in The phantom that shadows me.

During this HSC year I somehow developed a deep affinity to place - the subject of my artwork, the Italian cities of Cinque Terre. It was a place that I'd never visited. At first, it was the relationship between the textures and architectural form of the buildings that appealed to me, much like Brett Whiteley's fascination with Paris. But during the creation of my work the free expressive style became a catharsis, untamed by any rule, formula or barrier. It was a symbol of an escape. I wished that I was not here, but there.

Deuteranopia: red-green colourblindness. My greens are red and blues are orange, according to the tests at least. I thought being colourblind was my weakness, but perhaps it’s playing a role in a society that will not open its eyes, not willing to see the destruction of our environment through the continued use of fossil fuels. I used train moulds, oil paint, rust patina and recycled bike wheels in my body of work to represent my memories, all tainted now. A warm house in winter: more carbon in our atmosphere. My favourite soft toy: filled with plastic that never breaks down.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the artist Robert Klippel.

The Bryte Light is a series of works exploring artmaking as a young person. The subjects are people in my life who have influenced me or have had a big effect on my life and the work I do. Using acrylic on canvas gave me the texture and fluidity I wanted and allowed me to be gestural. The immediate nature of the way I work captures a moment and the sitter quickly in the painting.

Being surrounded by heavy industry and making a visual statement about its enormous size was my primary concern. Although the steelworks play a vital role economically, there will always be a concern environmentally. I found the many different shapes, forms and colour of specific buildings quite interesting. This in turn led me to explore printmaking as a form that could show a range of contrasting features, including the attempt to make the steelworks environmentally friendly by the addition of trees within the industrial complex.

My major work consists of a series of time exposure photographs taken at the ocean baths at night. In these images I have combined long exposures in excess of 30 seconds with fill-in flash. My sister was used as my model; she remains still for about 15 seconds in the pool. The effect is the ghost-like quality. The images examine the strange geometry of the baths, with the diving blocks used as a dominant element of the composition. The softness of the water and spray of the waves contrasts with the firm lines of the pool.

Inspired by art of the impressionist movement, my body of work uses swirling embroidery to convey motion in the background of quotidian scenes representing my childhood life. The thread in my work symbolises the unceasing passage of time woven through our brief lives. My intention was to illustrate children's inherent curiosity towards their environment, oblivious to the invisible threads of time. My work examines children’s ability to live in the present, free from time’s burden, as an invitation to audiences to live unconfined and appreciate every moment.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Vincent van Gogh, Han Cao.

When starting my artwork I thought I knew exactly what location, props and techniques I would use for each photograph. As this approach loosened, I began to look around for more options when trying to take a particular photograph. Experience taught me to adopt and utilise every creative option available to me.

Lithgow winters have a distinctive quality, a unique blend of climate, environment and human activity. The final composition of this work was the result of several photo shoots with a parabolic mirror and some cut-and-pasting. The rendering of the ix poss premier mage, using acrylic paint scratched over melamine, created a series of problems, not least of which was the need to apply colours in one hit. I set out to create a detailed, linear work and, although the process threw up qualities I had not envisaged, the result was a pleasing end to a long process.

Bibliophile is the result of my intimate relationship with my books – their content and the internal worlds into which they lead me, their physicality and tangible presence in my life. My works magnify and illuminate this relationship, cutting across stereotypical, expected images, and replacing them with cropped, ambiguous photographs. They are designed to engage and delight the viewer with their intense detail, moonscape forms and muted autumnal tones – reminiscent of old and precious texts. Bibliophile was a labour of love, involving hours of fine colouring, shading and the gradual construction of a multi-layered work. Just like reading a good book, really.

My artwork explores deforestation and the conservation of monkeys. My love of monkeys began when I travelled to Thailand with my family and had a joyful experience meeting an orangutan named Billy. This experience led me to the discovery of the work of Dr Jane Goodall who is a primatologist. Like Goodall, I too like to think that I send an important message about saving these magnificent creatures, hopefully challenging the audience and asking the important question, 'Have we gone too far?'

My original idea was to represent the intimate relationship between man and man-made structures by depicting the two elements in a similar and expressive style. In practice, the inclusion of the human form was a complication and didn't suit my drawing technique. Without the human element the buildings developed as an impressionistic portraiture of the Sydney buildings which had caught my eye with their character. Drawing in the city is simply a manifestation of my ability and desire to draw, it does not involve a philosophical theme and seeks only to stimulate the eye rather than the mind.

My work was inspired by the photography of David Moore, the beauty of Sydney and the working life of the harbour. The harbour is often seen from the centre and rarely is the edge of the city seen as beautiful. I've used black and white photography to capture the light on the water and the subtleties the of the light.

My body of work represents my contortions of identity in questioning my faith, and how I found peace, not through or with others, but within myself. It expresses the past – where I've come from and what I've learned – as well as previewing the future – where I'm going. Elements of the work that seem to simultaneously appear and disappear question ideas of perception. I struggled to find a form of acceptance to keep my faith. I invite my audience to revisit their experiences to find that serene feeling of acceptance. If listened to carefully, these silent pictures will yell a story.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Anya Anti, Bruno Catalano, Renaissance artists.

My work explores the idea of 'homage to nature', with its beauty and fragility which exists without interference by man. I linked this with the truth about man's continual destruction of nature, hence books and paper. Through influences from Andy Goldsworthy and much experimentation using natural materials I arrived at my finished body of work.

Identity; culture; family: these themes are central to my art making practice. In my language group, Yaegl, emphasis is placed on matriarchal lineage and belonging to 'country'. Investigating my heritage through three generations of women I have drawn inspiration from personal experiences of my mother's birthplace, the Northern Rivers of NSW. Symbols associated with the Clarence River recur throughout my work and act as a link to the creation story of 'Dirrangun, water spirit'. The dominant symbols of fish, turtles and the female water spirits metaphorically represent myself, my mother and my grandmother. The totems echo the female figure and reiterate the influence of the matriarch in my family. Their link to the land is contextualised in the photographs – they are seen in the local environment where I have grown up.

My teacher referred me to historical portraiture and introduced me to methods of glazing using acrylic paint to give increased vibrancy to the surface of the painting. I explored classical portraiture, particularly images of children, and found inspiring the peculiar vigour that an image of a child lends a painting.

In my work I wanted the audience to feel something, I wanted them to be engaged and ‘lured’ in, not only by the sculpture, but by the theatrical experience of the instillation. When researching both literal and metaphorical ideas of light and dark, evil and good, I came across the angler fish – a deep sea fish that uses a light to lure its prey. Which led me to the idea of ‘macabre’. I used lighting and shadow to extend this idea, allowing the audience to become engulfed as a part of the artwork, rather than just a spectator.

My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Stephen Coburn, Robert Dujin, Franz Kline, Christian Boltanski.

On July 3rd, 1949, Yanni and Sofronia arrived in Australia by boat from Cyprus. On October 18th, 1997, I arrived at Athens airport to explore the heritage that my family and my grandparents left me. The polaroid emulsion lifts provided the metaphor for fragility and preciousness of family and memories. This final series of images has given me a sense of belonging to our culture.

We often overlook the tiny pieces of our everyday existence, which makes up the majority of our lives. We encounter objects and events that we rarely notice, but are always there. My artwork is about looking at the details; dissecting an image; examining the pieces and reassembling them. The theme is echoed in both the subject matter and technique. I chose as subject matter my father and brother (the mechanics) and my brother's car, because it was challenging, detailed and an event in my life that had no specific importance. It was simply an event that happened and would have been overlooked had I not made it significant and turned it into an artwork. My interest in composing an artwork from small pieces began when I completed an artwork using the same technique with a twenty cent piece. This progressed to trying mosaics but after one effort, I returned to paper as it was easier to handle, more flexible (texturally and tonally) and more accessible.