PROFILE Janet Dawson 090 Janet Dawson 091 STORY CHRISTINE FRANCE Janet Dawson’s deep interest in the multiple meanings and systems which exist in the visual world has led her to work with both abstract and figurative art. These unite in her consummate skills as a painter and draftsperson to combine the lyrical sources of her art with her exploration of space and objective investigation. JANET DAWSON was a precocious artistic talent in her early teens Janet, your current solo exhibition at Stella Downer Fine Art is and 20s and attended the National Gallery of Victoria Art School your first since you moved from your rural property ‘Scribble from the age of 16, where she won the 1956 National Gallery of Rock’ to a small cottage in the nearby village of Binalong in NSW. Victoria Travelling Art Scholarship. In London she became receptive How has this move from bush to village affected your work? to abstraction and on her return to Australia became one of this Resonance, scale and proportion are three words which come to country’s major contemporary artists and a pivotal force in Australian mind. The move from bush to village was only about 5km so I inhabit printmaking. In 1974 she moved to rural New South Wales and began the same landscape but the shift in scale and proportion and the an intense study of structures and systems in nature and perception turnabout of familiar landmarks caused queries in my mind. At which she carried through to work on the specificities of objects ‘Scribble Rock’ the two hills that dominated our western skyline were through direct observation and the process of painting. After 40 years great long flanks topping undulating foothills. Here in the village on a rural property, Dawson recently moved to a small cottage in the they are conical peaks poking above the village trees and houses, nearby village of Binalong, and I was interested to see what changes so they have a strong immediate presence. this meant for her work. 01 PROFILE Janet Dawson 02 092 093 At ‘Scribble Rock’ the two hills that dominated our western skyline 04 were great long flanks topping undulating foothills. Here in the It is the same with the trees in the village. Here there are many enormous old eucalypts, some isolated in small domestic paddocks, 05 village they are conical peaks poking above the trees and houses some standing as street trees. In the bush these great trees are often on open ground, clear of the surrounding bushland. They are seen against the hills, the open spaces and the undulating curves and swells of the terrain. By comparison the village trees seem gigantic as they rear over low-level clusters of buildings, shops and yards. It is enjoyable now to explore all of this, and ‘resonance’ is the word I use for the recall and adjustment processes, as quite often my eyes see for instance a tree but my memory presents the tree in another way. The study drawings I am currently making are concerned with these shifts and changes particularly with the great street trees in close proximity to small buildings. The process of perception has always interested you, and I can see that your experience of well-known landforms from other viewpoints would stimulate your enquiry into the way in which we see things and how they might alter from what we have previously known. Some artists have a courageous acceptance of how things look and accept the retinal image. I can’t do that, I have to express what I know. If I look at a hill it is not just what I see. My knowledge of the surrounding light, air, rocks and vegetation enriches the immediate 05 visual impression. Resonance has always been a starting point for your work. As one of this country’s leading abstract painters in the 1960s you referenced the composition of works you had studied in London’s National Gallery, such as Paolo Uccello’s ‘St George and the Dragon’ (1964). Later when you moved to the country the bark In the 60s I accepted flat peeling from trees had a resonance which related to the visual painting, but then I got vocabulary you were using in your non-objective work. Yes, these things were often a starting point. In the 60s I accepted flat bored with it. I wanted painting, but then I got bored with it. I wanted depth and optical movement. This can be achieved with pure colour, for instance depth and optical movement 03 putting red next to green. The red moves forward while the green recedes. Linking this knowledge to objects people know makes a work more emotionally and visually interesting. Over the years you have worked in a variety of studio spaces but at Scribble Rock you did a lot of preliminary work en plein air before finishing it in a purpose-built tin shed studio. In town your work space is much smaller which I suspect will limit the size and content of your work. My work slowed as I resettled. This cottage has a beautiful light throughout. Its warm, white interior spaces mean I have been able to check over older drawings and rework them to a higher level of energy and precision. There is a room ideal for painting. It’s small, but with two large windows which sunlight never reaches and the reflected light from outside is magnificent. I am looking forward to working small, with pen and wash studies, which will be good for my concentration. The pride of the cottage is a raised porch overlooking the quiet street. I have a work table with a small easel out there and have started a series of drawings from that position. As I have mentioned before I have been very interested in the great eucalypts around the village especially in terms of proportion and emotional content. I have photographed these trees in detail, printed them out in sepia on paper as working images, and am about to start 06 some drawings which I hope will lead to some grand paintings in the future. The advantage of this subject is that my models are nearby and I can visit them every day as I walk my dog Bosco. Other still-life painters are very particular about arranging their compositions. Your works never seem posed, they appear to be painted just as you find them. Your still-lifes of plants and animals are accurately depicted, yet they have a quality which draws the viewer into a deep but not sentimental empathy with the subject. The historian Michael Fried in his book on the artist Adolf Menzel talks about embodiment. One definition of embodiment is “to invest a 094 spiritual entity with a bodily form”. When I paint plants and animals I am aware not only of the beauty of the object or creature, but of its singularity as a living or once-living thing. If that has resonance for the viewer I am pleased. You are a great colourist. Your work is painterly and you seem to achieve volume through subtly graded colours as you integrate your subjects into their environment. Do you think your initial training as a tonal realist has helped you achieve this? Yes, I studied at the National Gallery Art School, Melbourne, under William Dargie. Today when I look at Dargie’s work every 07 brushstroke has a fresh presence. He taught me to mix, put it on and leave. I think this is very important to learn. A lot of painters today overwork their surfaces with poor results. You have worked with both figuration and abstraction; your work is now investigative and observational but as Deborah Edwards I am looking forward to has said you have enfolded abstraction into a vision that is centred on the specificities of objects, on states of the natural world and on working small, with pen and the process of painting. Yes, recently I have been doing a series of drawings focused on the wash studies, which will be roof of the house next door. I see a large, long, neat, slope of green- good for my concentration painted corrugated iron. The ridge is topped with two mushroom shaped, whirligig air vents. Sunlight on this roof produces complexities of colour and tone on the corrugations and the silhouettes of the whirligigs concentrate the light and colour of the sky. It is rich in pictorial possibilities. It is there every day, always changing with the movement of the sun. So here I am sitting on my porch, looking at something ordinary, which is wonderful. I want to hold the past and re-fashion it to the present. 01 Cauliflower on a Plastic Bag, 1994-2013, charcoal conte pastel, 97 x 55cm 02 Mandarin Peel with Pips and Teabags, 2010, colour pencil and pastel, 29 x 38cm 03 Two Trees – late sun, 2014, watercolour, gouache and pastel, 18 x 32cm EXHIBITION 04 Apples and Stones, 2008, gouache and pastel, 17 x 25cm Janet Dawson 05 Pork Scraps in a Baking Dish, 1998-2015, oil on canvas, 51 x 64cm Until 29 August, 2015 06 Quinces and Glass Jar, 1999-2013, gouache and pastel, 18 x 26cm Stella Downer Fine Art 07 Sprouting Cabbage and Clouds, 1992-2015, oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm www.stelladownerfineart.com.au Courtesy the artist and Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney..