Anna Steele and Elyss McCleary present a suite of new painting compositions that play zig-zag actions across a thinking space. The works locate intersections of the built and natural environment that offer multiple horizons across the canvas.
Observing and taking notice of the landscape forms the basis of ‘Interval Diagonal’. Over time, this noticing has formed a correspondence between the two artists. They walk the same creek walk, traverse the same inner city streets yet their embodied memories are unique. These paintings, made up of several layers, reveal and conceal aspects to form landscapes that fuse the natural and the urban.
Both artists share a love of walking and seeing. Insights from the local streets, lockdown walks, found objects and night lights are reflected onto the canvas through making and remaking layers. These abstract works ignite a newly imagined space beyond the real to a picture-plane full of gesture and colour, and a physicality of paint that is directional.
Brushstrokes, drips, hard-edges and soft shimmering lines collage across the surface of the canvases. These layers allude to a mash-up of forms situated in the urban landscape; dense, with intervals of rest and a pace of activity. The interlude between layers of paint allows a thinking space to emerge within each encounter of these works.
Image: Anna Steele, 38 Degrees And The Pool Is Closed, (cropped) oil on linen, 2023.
Installation of works at Divisions Gallery, June 2023. (L-R) Elyss McCleary, Anna Steele. Photography by Aaron Christopher Rees.
Interval Diagonal Exhibition Opening Friday 9th June 6-8pm
9th June - 9th July at Divisions Gallery