Julie-anne Armstrong-Roper-
Title : Greetings from Dominica
Medium: Oil on Plywood with some Mixed Media
Price : AUD 550
National Graphic
1953
Volume CIII
Number One
About the artwork:
Greetings from Dominica
2021 has brought lockdown after lockdown, 5km travel limits and nightly curfews to my life in Melbourne. Never has the urge to travel to far flung destinations been so strong as when it has been denied. This feeling took me back to my childhood in the 1960s when postcards sent by older relatives allowed me to dream of travel to exotic locations such as Dominica in the Caribbean. I carefully steamed off the stamps from the postcards and kept them in an album that I would look at by torchlight at night in my room when the outer suburban life of my childhood seemed inescapable. In the 1960s Dominica gained independence from Great Britain and I imagined the country’s confidence in their place in the future would be expressed in the artful stillness of their postcards promoting their chief export and by having the space race on their stamps. Locked down once more I drew strength from this hope for a bright future and of the promise of travel to tropical climes.
About Julie-anne:
During the past twenty years my works have explored the complexities of the human psych. I have done this by using the landscape to express a feeling of isolation and a sense of the frailty of humanity exposed to the elements, by using the weather as a metaphor for the emotive changes we experience throughout our lives,
I also aim to create a sense of light and depth beyond the painted surface. I do this by building up the layers of paint and medium over a long period of time. Light is absorbed and contained in my paintings, allowing the viewer to look into the canvases and become totally engrossed by the images.
In this work I have departed from the landscape and have embarked on a still life, which reflects a more interior which we find ourselves while in a life in lock down, awaiting the time when we can emerge.