Veronica O'Leary
Location
Tathra, Australia
Preferred artistic medium
Drawing, Painting, Printmaking
Art level career
Established
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Artist statement
I work in a variety of mediums -oil paintings, drawings and prints working on a number of themes. Of recent years my large oil paintings have been concerned with the impact of fires on the Australain landscape. One of these large paintings Our land is Burning was awarded the Hangers Choice Award and the People's Choice Award in the John Glover Painting Prize 2020.My paintings explore the juxtaposition of stillness and motion, the writhe and fall of light at different times of day and in changeable weathers.In my work there is a strong sense of the fragility of our natural environment and of its increasing unpredicatability. For me the world is layered, omnious and sweeping with change. It is this consciousness which drives me as an artist.
In 2019 as artist in residence on King Island I executed an exhibition of paintings called Impressions of King island based on that remote and wild Tasmanian landscape.I am drawn to moody and turbulent skies as a subject, the play of light on the landscape and making paintings to inspire reflection on the natural world and our place within it.
My practice is sustained by travel and change.This has seen me take up residencies In the Cobourg Peninsula and Uluru in the NT, Lindeman Island, Qld and King Island ,Tasmania.
I have produced many artist books of my travels in Sri Lanka, Jordan, and Australia and enjoy the process of drawing and documentation.One of my artist concertina books was Highly Commended in the Rutherglen Tastes of Art Award 2020.In 2018 I produced a book of drawings and gouache paintings "100 days on the island" which was a daily drawing practice of my time living and working on King Island. It was during this time that I discovered the lost caravans of KI- caravans and shacks perched on remote beaches .This instigated the Caravan series and a new landscape exploration.