Girl on a Swing

The gaze is focused on a young girl performing high above an admiring crowd. She moves with the velocity and confidence of youth, exhilarated by the danger of the act. “Girl on a trapeze” deliberately references paintings like Jean-Honoré Fragonard's "Happy hazards of the swing"; Edgar Degas "Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando"; and Édouard Manet’s "Bar at the Folies-Bergère" where the young female figure displays a flourishing sensuality, an elegant eroticism. As Degas said of his Miss La La: “She is fully alive and radiates strength and beauty”. "Girl on a trapeze" is part of my series on the lost art of circus performance, the transience of travelling carnivals and the sinister side of clowns gone wrong.

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SYDNEY-BASED AUSTRALIAN ARTIST

While travelling recently to Italy to do an art workshop, people commented: Oh, you're an artist. What kind of art do you do? I responded with an unconvinced "yes" and a less than informative "various". I realised that I needed to be more positive and specific (without the "art speak") about my art practice. My work is based on my life experiences, places to which I have been, people I know, objects significant to me. My style is "figurative", a tree looks like a tree, built environment is true, portraits have a likeness. I don't have the imagination for abstracts or the patience for hyper-realism. I have always liked to draw and it remains a solid basis for my painting. My medium for B&W works is ink stain and charcoal on heavy print paper. I paint in oil on canvas or panel depending on size. I am currently specialising in a 13th century medieval technique of egg tempera and gold leaf on timber panel.