MEET THE ARTIST: LISE TEMPLE

MEET THE ARTIST: LISE TEMPLE

When Lise Temple moved to the Barossa Valley in South Australia she was mesmerised by the broad views of the country’s never ending valleys.

The landscape painter says that the light almost "feels more vivid there". There must be something quite spectacular about the warm sun illuminating the grasslands of the Barossa. These broad landscapes have, in turn, broadened the scope of her art career, inspiring her to develop an innovative (and frankly gorgeous!) method of abstraction.

Image: Detail of Tree Lines + Distant Hills (125cm x 71cm) oil on canvas. 

Lise, like many artists, has worked hard to reach the point in which she is able to spend most of her time painting. She started a degree at art school in her late teens but soon decided it wasn’t for her, I dropped out, frustrated that my questions weren’t being answered and thinking I should get a real job." Luckily, it didn’t take her long to find a new community of like-minded creatives to bounce ideas off. Lise spoke about how this community support grounded her when she began painting again. 

“A group of generous artists in a shared studio encouraged me to work and learn with them and I ended up doing an informal apprenticeship there. I met my partner Roland Weight at this time. He is also an artist, and an experienced teacher. I rely a lot on our critical interaction during the process of art making and feel very lucky to have someone to bounce creative ideas off when I hit a brick wall!” 

Image: Lise's studio.

Lise’s carefully packaged paintings arrived at the gallery earlier this month. Unboxing them felt exciting, like unwrapping a gift on your birthday. The quality of the thick oil paint she uses is even more lustrous in real life. Lise's paintings are simultaneously dynamic and subtle, just one confident stroke of paint can capture the delineation of a mountain and a few delicate marks allude to the existence of a canola field or distant wattle trees. The tension between her more representational details and abstract pains of colour draws us in and keeps us engaged. We can't stop looking at these beautiful paintings. 

Image: The Road In (64cm x 54cm) oil on canvas.

Lise loves the immediacy of oil paint and builds up textural plains of colour using her collection of indispensable palette knives. She walked us through her process and spoke about how she uses photography and collage techniques to create her landscape compositions: 

I generally begin by shooting hundreds of photos from the car whenever I’m a passenger. These photos become the source for collage making, which is how I compose my designs. Once I have a composition I like, I use it as a maquette for a painting. The painting process is quite loose with further developments to the design always occurring in the studio. I like to allow for accidents to play a part and will sometimes make several different paintings from the same collage with the resulting works ending up quite different.”

Image: Autumn Vines (64cm x 54cm) oil on canvas. 

Lise’s an award-winning contemporary artist. We're thrilled to welcome her and her remarkable paintings to Forman. A few of her standout achievements are as follows: 

Winner – City of Burnside Prize 2013.

Winner – Watershed Art Prize 2013.

Winner – Clare Art Prize 2011.

Winner – Barossa Art Prize 2011.

Winner – Best Regional Artist – Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape 2007. 

Winner – Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape 2005.

Shop Lise's collection here.

 

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MEET THE ARTIST: BRIAN CONNOLLY

MEET THE ARTIST: BRIAN CONNOLLY

Dwelling deep in the sub-tropical paradise of Byron Bay is a painter at work in his studio. He is covered head to toe in paint and pollen, has sea salt in his hair and a paintbrush in his hand. This magnetic and super talented man is artist, Brian Connolly.                                                                                                                                           From inside his creative sanctuary you can hear the waves kissing the shore of the beach nearby. Brian moved to Byron from Melbourne two years ago and spoke about how this lifestyle change has filtered into his painting practice. Read on to learn more about what inspires this artist and his creative journey. “As you are driving into the town there is a sign that reads ‘Welcome to Byron Bay. Cheer Up, Slow Down, Chill Out’. They were all a part of my intentions for moving to Byron from the craziness of city life in Melbourne. I felt I needed to take a deeper dive inwards and get closer to finding out more about myself and let that translate into my artworks. You can hear the sound of the roaring ocean from my bedroom window, it really is quite the dream and I feel this new-found lightness and inspiration of colour has naturally flowed through my latest works." Brian’s paintings embody the town’s nurturing message. The electric blue vessels, contemplative faces and tropical orchids draw us into his warm, relaxing world.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Brian’s earliest artist mentor was his Nana. She inspired him greatly, not only with her artistic prowess but also with her passion for gardening. He describes her garden as “abundant and immaculate.” Her garden has proven to be a limitless source of inspiration for the artist. Some of the main themes we see running through Brian’s paintings are a celebration of the natural world and an inquiry into the human psyche. “I am forever intrigued by the spiritual self and personal growth and my artworks are forever shaped around a diarist approach. The flowers in my work represent that bridging link between nature and human life. I tend to depict bold, whimsical distorted figures, with elements of naivety which reinforces the idea of finding the true beauty in the imperfect.”                                                                                                                                   When Brian speaks about why he paints it's apparent that making art is his vocation. His creative expression allows him time to process and work through life's challenges. He suffered from severe bullying due to his sexuality which led him to question his self-worth and to feel isolated. "I learnt to rewrite the story and embrace my differences. I found expressing myself through art with colour and deep rooted emotion was one of the most important means of communication and feelings of wholeness. Every time I create, any struggle or worry I have instantly dissipates. For me, art has been my saving grace." 

In 2007, Brian completed a Bachelor of Creative Industries, majoring in Visual Arts at QUT Brisbane. He now works as an artist full time, exhibiting frequently, completing commissions and painting murals for both private and commercial clients. He has now completed 20 murals, countless commissions, and exhibited throughout Australia. His work has been featured in Vogue Living, The Collective Hub and Instyle Hair magazine.

We welcome Brian with arms wide open! 

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Stay in and Style: The Styling in Isolation Series

Stay in and Style: The Styling in Isolation Series

Introducing our new series: Stay In and Style. 

In this series we collaborate with Melbourne based interior decorators. We provide them with a selection of artworks to take home and style in their very own homes. All photographs are taken by the designers using only a cell phone.
We're so impressed by the results and hope that this series inspires anyone out there who is styling in isolation!

Styling by Cassie from CJH Studio featuring artwork by Marika Borlase. 

Styling by Cassie from CJH Studio featuring artwork by Nunzio Miano.

Styling by Cassie from CJH Studio featuring artwork by Marika Borlase.

Styling by Cassie from CJH Studio featuring artwork by Jo Dyer.

Styling by Michelle from Bask Interiors featuring artwork by Emily Persson. 

 

Styling by Michelle from Bask Interiors featuring artwork by Marika Borlase.  

Styling by Janita McMahon from Calamity Jane Interiors featuring artwork by Michelle Kettle and Sally Browne.

Styling by Janita McMahon from Calamity Jane Interiors featuring artwork by Marika Borlase.
To see more of this series head over to our instagram where we will post new instalments of this series each Sunday night at 7pm. 

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MEET THE ARTIST: EMMA LEONARD

MEET THE ARTIST: EMMA LEONARD

Emma Leonard is an artist, illustrator and mother. You can usually find her in her home studio in Melbourne’s inner west  alongside her children and her beloved dog, Buffalo.

Leonard’s masterful use of oil paint has made us fall in love with her stunning still life paintings. She invites us into intimate domestic moments. We see ripe figs next to speckled handmade ceramics, an orange persimmon placed next to deep purple foliage all of which are painted with thoughtful colours that compliment each other perfectly. The surface of her paintings are rich and textural.

When talking about her creative journey, Leonard states: “My passion for art began as a young child but in my mid twenties I decided to become an illustrator. I have been a freelance illustrator ever since, specialising in portraiture and botanical illustration with clients including Mercedes Benz, Random House, MTV and Covergirl NYC however decided to pivot towards oil painting with a focus on still life after the birth of my second child three years ago. Now I happily divide my time between painting and illustration”.

Leonard’s constantly collecting from her surroundings and using her findings to establish compositions “I also usually like to include something from nature, like a stem of wattle collected on my morning walk or a few Birds Of Paradise blooms from outside my bedroom window”. She always begins the painting process with a warm raw sienna underpainting. During the underpainting stage, Emma plans her composition and preps a base that gives her artwork a warm glow. 

Leonard is influenced by old masters and contemporaries alike. She names artists Margaret Olley, Matisse and Dutch still life painters from the 17th century, alongside local contemporary still life artists Elizabeth Barnett, Sam Michelle and Lucy Roleff. 
See our collection of Emma's Paintings here.
Photography by Shannyn Higgins. 

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