4 - 23 November 2010
about the exhibition
Sue Lovegrove’s recent paintings are inspired by the tangled weave of native grasses and sedges found in the landscapes of Tasmania. These landscapes can be spectacular and isolated such as Maatsuyker Island and Tasman Island, while other places are more familiar, such as the Egg Islands in the Huon River and the slopes of Mt Wellington. Sue is drawn to landscapes where native vegetation is reclaiming the human world and her paintings express both the strength and fragility of nature. Sue’s work conveys an intimate connection with the landscape not only through what she sees, but also how she interprets the experience of her surroundings through the sense of touch. Sue’s sensuous appreciation of nature reveals her fascination with “the simple beauty and patterning found in the ordinary everyday images of grass” and her belief that such mundane and ordinary aspects of nature should be treated without “ambivalent disregard or blind acceptance”. The native grasses depicted in Sue’s paintings; Poa Australis, Juncus, Gahnia Grandis, Lomandra Longifolia and Carex Apressa, are very dense and can grow up to a metre high. Grasses are often disregarded or seen as insignificant in the ecological hierarchy, yet they harbour a vast biodiversity. Sue’s fine brushwork in a muted palette of green, grey, brown and blue replicates the fine, interwoven appearance of grass shaped by the wind, the weather, tidal movement and the passage of animals creating chaotic patterns of line and abstract weavings of light.
Sue Lovegrove trained at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, completing her PhD in 2002. She has lectured in the painting departments of the University of Wollongong, NSW; Charles Darwin University, NT and the ANU. Sue has devoted herself fulltime to her art practice since 2003 and has been exhibiting regularly and extensively across Australia since 1990. The recipient of numerous awards, Sue received the Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship in 2003 where she visited Antarctica and Macquarie Island; and the Arts Tasmania Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant to complete a residency on Maatsuyker Island in 2007. Sue has also been awarded other residencies at the Victorian Tapestry Workshop (2008), Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence Program (2001) and the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs (2001). Sue Lovegrove’s work is in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Australia; Artbank; National Gallery of Victoria; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launcestion.
