Artist statement
Delicate, ethereal and finely detailed, Colleen’s works encourage the onlooker to slow, look closely, engage the imagination and connect with the cycle of life around us. Her meticulous art making process requires her to do the same.
Drawing on her background in horticulture and landscape design, Colleen’s unique art practice is a celebration of nature, both wild and cultivated.
Her delicate three-dimensional paper sculpture and mixed media works are reminiscent of herbarium and entomology specimens. Each finely drawn, painted and assembled piece is mounted onto paper using entomology pins, giving the appearance of floating. The delicate nature of the works and transient play of shadow signifies the fragility of the subject.
Colleen's inaugural solo exhibition, Into the Wilder at the Corner Store Gallery, Orange NSW, was a sellout.
ARTS PRACTICE
- November 2017 | current. Full time artist
- 2010|2018 Landscape designer specialising in hand rendered landscape plans
AWARDS
- Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Top 100 Paper Artists 2019 (International)
- Finalist, Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery NSW 2019
- Finalist Pro Hart Outback Art Prize Broken Hill Regional Gallery NSW 2019
- Finalist and winner of the Viewer’s Choice Award Little Things Art Prize Saint Cloche Gallery Paddington NSW, 2018
- Recipient of the TNSW State Medal for Excellence in Horticulture 2010
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
- Shows for 2021 to be advised
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- The Shadow of Wings Suki and Hugh Gallery Bungendore March/April 2020
- Into the Wilder Corner Store Gallery. Orange NSW 2019. Inaugural solo exhibition and a sellout
DUO/GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- Rekindled Saint Cloche Upstairs Paddington NSW 2019 (with Ingrid Bowen, Samantha Mackie, Jane Gerrish)
- Essentiae Gallery One88 Katoomba May 2019 (with Peter Worsley)
- Unfurl Corner Store Gallery Orange NSW 2018 (Inaugural exhibition with sculptor Peter Worsley, a sellout)
EXHIBITIONS BY INVITATION OR APPLICATION
- Locals Only Corner Store Gallery Orange NSW 2020
- Here and Now Orange Regional Gallery NSW 2019
- Finalist, Pro Hart Outback Art Prize Broken Hill Regional Gallery NSW 2019
- 8 x 10 Corner Store Gallery Orange NSW 2019
- Artisans in the Gardens Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney NSW 2018
- Finalist and peoples choice winner - Little Things Art Prize Saint Cloche Gallery Paddington NSW 2018
- Blue, Corner Store Gallery Orange NSW 2018
- Just a Square Darling Mills Gallery Mittagong NSW 2018
COMMISSIONS
- Numerous private commissions have been undertaken with works held in private collections in Australia and the USA
Media
- Country Style Magazine feature story art issue 2020
- Living Arts Canberra 2020
- Beautiful Bizarre Magazine top 100 Paper Artists published 2020
- The Garden Clinic publication feature story Autumn 2020
- Company Podcast, interview with Skye Manson 2019
- Rural Women's Day Inspiring Rural Women feature 2019
- The Planthunter Feature story and interview with Georgina Reid 2019
- Central Western Daily newspaper article 2019
- Rekindle Podcast panel interview with Robert Gerrish 2019
- The Gardens Magazine Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens 2018
- Discover Central West Magazine article 2018
Memberships
- Member by invitation The Journeyperson arts collective Orange NSW
- National Association for the Visual Arts
