'To Meet The Rising Sun' — Annie Everingham

Artist Statement

The fabric that makes up my inner visual landscape is crafted from fragments of real and imagined visual dreamscapes - a cultivated collection of colour, pattern, nature, folklore and storytelling. As a small child l learned to navigate a rich inner world through drawing, seeking escapism in the mythology and romance of the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as being drawn to the ornate and decorative beauty celebrated by still life and impressionist artists.

A self taught artist, my practice evolved to incorporate painting and mark making during university, where I studied fashion and textile design. Experimenting with a range of mediums to create textures, playful motifs and floral compositions through hand painting and digital printing onto fabric, my formative years were enriched by the opportunity to explore a broad range of creative pursuits.

Now as a full time artist and creative, I primarily work with acrylic on canvas moving between abstract, semi-abstract and still life subjects. My paintings are defined by a soft, feminine palette of pastels and earth tones, evoking a quiet tension between expressive marks of bold colour, and ethereal, dreamlike shapes and poignant vignettes created by layering.

Theme: SCALE

The transformative experience of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum and how it shapes the landscape of our identity and sense of self is a theme often woven into my more recent work. These paintings mark my return to the studio from an extended hiatus, following the birth of my second child. Inspired by the concept of ‘looking out, and looking in', of a figurative window, they form their composition through layering both earthy, dry brushstrokes with vibrant ink and emotive gestures.

The abstract shapes and textures meet grounded structure, balancing movement with moments of serenity. Imperfect smudges of oil pastels mimic the mark of sticky fingers on glass; and the foggy, floating mirages of a past self. The window becomes a lens through which I reconcile the earth shifting contradictions that define early motherhood: chaos and stillness, fulfilment and longing, intuitive wisdom and overwhelming uncertainty.

The expansive world outside and the deeply intimate spaces within the gentle hum of family life exist as parallel entities. In this context, both scale and landscape inform my work - the landscape, with its shifting forms and evolving rhythms, mirrors the ever-changing terrain of the self, while scale is explored through the metaphor of a window, which frames, reflects, distorts, obscures and illuminates our view.

— Annie Everingham, Newcastle, NSW