Julia Griffin
CREATIVE PRACTICE
Painter
ARTIST STATEMENT
I tend to choose my subjects by coming back to a spot which has consistently left me with a strong impression or by catching moments when the elements of a place are caught in the spotlight from the changing light. The weather is reflected in the landscape, as is the presence of man in the way he has delineated the landscape with roads and fences that follow the contours of the land, pegging out territory, asserting control and ownership. Whether it is a landscape or an interior I try to strike a chord of recognition, of a moment that was real and is familiar to me and the viewer. Homes that are abandoned hold a particular interest for me; these places hold memories and the remnants of another life and time. The date of a calendar bookmarking the time of abandonment and the interplay of shadowed empty rooms and light through lace curtains create a poignant stillness. It is the light that creates an inner life to these spaces and very often it is the sense of absence that becomes the present.
BIO
I began my practice after finishing my studies as a printmaker at Sydney College of the Arts where I met my future husband Stephen King. When I moved to Walcha in 1982 to live on Stephen’s family farm I continued my printmaking with monoprints and etchings but moved to painting in 1990 working in both watercolours and oils. Interiors, the fronts of houses and the backs of trucks held a fascination for me, but gradually I started to paint the landscape in which I live and particularly what I see from the road. Photography is an important tool in my painting practice. More recently we built a new printmaking and painting studio. I have returned to making multiple plate colour etchings of interiors and continue my exploration of light and the landscape close to home and remote locations to which I travel around Australia.
CONTACT
.juliagriffinking@gmail.com or use the form below.