The Garden Curator

Garden designer | Landscape designer | Landscape illustrator

Artist Statement & CV

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 exhibited for the first time in early 2018 with a sell-out result. Her work was awarded the celebrated Little Things Art Prize People’s Choice Award in 2018, selected for the 2018 Artisans in the Gardens exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, and finalist in the 2019 Outback Art Prize.

ARTS PRACTICE

• November 2017 – current. Artist – full time, practicing paper sculpture and mixed media artist. This practice has grown exponentially since late 2017 and has become a full- time pursuit.
• 2010 – November 2017. Practicing landscape designer specialising in hand drawn and rendered plans and commissioned aerial illustrations of gardens and properties. This has been largely put on hold to enable pursuit of professional art practice.

AWARDS

• Finalist, Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery, 2019
• Finalist, Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, 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, awarded for excellence in horticultural practice, design and drafting and hand rendered plan illustrations.

EXHIBITIONS

• Essentiae, Gallery One88, Katoomba May 2019
• Unfurl, Corner Store Gallery, Orange NSW 2018. Joint exhibition with sculptor Peter Worsley. This was Colleen’s inaugural exhibition and was a sell-out.

Group Exhibitions (by invitation or application)

• Here and Now, Orange Regional Gallery, 2019
• Finalist, Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, 2019
• 8 x 10, Corner Store Gallery, Orange NSW 2019
• Artisans in the Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, 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

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

• “Rekindled” Saint Cloche Upstairs, Paddington NSW. Joint exhibition with Ingrid Bowen, Samantha Mackie and Jane Gerrish. October 2019.
• “Into the Wilder” Corner Store Gallery, Orange NSW, solo exhibition November 2019. Confirmed but yet to be announced.

COMMISSIONS

• 2017 – current: Since the launch of Colleen’s work at the Unfurl exhibition, over 50 private commissions have been received for paper sculpture/mixed media works, with works also being sold into the United States.
• 2010 – current: Private commissions taken for aerial illustrations of gardens and properties for various clients within the Central West region.

Memberships

• Member by invitation, The Journeyperson arts collective, Orange NSW.
• National Association for the Visual Arts.

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  • More blue...dutch irises are glowing in the garden now, here with the lime green buds of the Snowball tree (Viburnum opulus), Phlomis and clipped Tucreum in the background. Pop over to the wonderful @gardenclinicclub too, to see a photo of them taken at last week's visit by @rossgardentours - thanks for posting Graham, Sandra and Linda! Next to shine are the Siberian irises, my favourite of them all. They are budding now and about to burst, their flowers simpler and smaller than their more frilly friends, but abundant and so so lovely. Needless to say I will post pics when they arrive in all their glory! . . . #irises #blueflowers #blue #springgardens #floweringnow #countrygardens #countryliving
  • Did you thread daisy chains as a child? When we gather special childhood recollections of time spent in a garden, my guess is that the things we remember most fondly have little to do with the slick design of the space, or perfect symmetry of the hedges. Though these "bones" have a place, it's the sensory pleasures and the way we engage with the life within the garden that stay with us, and ignite our love for nature. My work for "Rekindled" explores these memories - making daisy chains, foraging for mushrooms, collecting bugs, picking posies. Each work also includes tiny snippets of vintage textiles, a reference to the making women of my family and the way their creative stories have influenced my own path. Rekindled @saint_cloche upstairs in McDonald Street Paddington, begins on 18th October. I will be exhibiting and reminiscing alongside the talented trio of @ingridbowenart @samantha_mackie and @janegerrish, with the official opening drinks at 2pm on Saturday 19th October. You are welcome to join us!
  • It's all about the blue in the garden this week, and the bees are beside themselves with droning excitement, swarming around the blues (and the viburnums) like groupies at a gig....though much less obnoxious. The hive is filling rapidly, and the honey pot will soon be too! Honey is the garden in a jar, love that thought. Evidently bees can't see red, but they detect blues and violets easily. They have good taste..these colours are delicious in the garden and they go with every colour imaginable. They lift pale pinks, contrast beautifully with yellow and orange, and are a stunning pairing with white and green ( whoever said "blue and green should not be seen without a colour inbetween" was bonkers). I love them too with the rich cerise flowers also smiling at present - the dierama, loropetalum and abundant crabapples. Best of all, the late blues, summer salvias with the bronze of ornamental grasses, golden paddocks beyond and stormy summer skies. Bliss! . . . #gottheblues #blueday #blueflowers #springgarden #bees #beesinthegarden #countrygardens #slowgardening #blue #beefriendlygardening #thesharedgarden #gardenhabitat #thegardencurator
  • Another piece off to our Rekindled show at Saint Cloche Upstairs. Only 10 days until the show kicks off with @ingridbowenart @janegerrish and @samantha_mackie at @saint_cloche upstairs gallery in McDonald Street, Paddington Sydney. Part of the @sydneycraftweek program - so many great things going on! Pop by on Saturday 19th October for our artists chat with Robert Gerrish at 1pm, and official opening drinks from 2 - 4pm.
  • ...and just like that, it's verandah season! One of the great pleasures of the warmer months, cups of tea, lazy lunches and evening drinks always taste better on a verandah. The cottage verandah is currently draped in wisteria, a pretty frame to the evening light across the hills, behaving for now, rambunctious through summer but so worth it! Thinking about it, every home I have lived in has had a verandah, as central to home as the kitchen, the heart of the home in summer. A convivial gathering place, a spot to put your feet up or to entertain. A place to kick off works boots and hang hats, the preferred dozing spot for the dogs. The verandah collects pots of herbs and baskets of eggs, gardening gloves, school bags and cricket bats. It also collects spider webs and sills of dust - the birds clean up the spiders, and the dust is a badge of country life, so in fact more a blessing than a curse. 😊
  • Two weeks from today, I will be in Sydney for the opening of Rekindled @saint_cloche Upstairs. Exhibiting alongside the talent of @ingridbowenart @samantha_mackie and @janegerrish at this beautiful gallery in Paddington, Sydney, is such a thrill. Little tin studio in a country garden one day, gorgeous gallery in the big city the next...thankyou Jane, Ingrid, Sam and Kitty, can't wait! Rekindled opens on Friday 18 October, with official opening drinks at 2pm Saturday 19 October. We will also be doing an artist chat with author, podcaster and founder of the legendary Flying Solo business network, Robert Gerrish, at 1pm Saturday. It's all go - time to shed the garden boots and put on some good shoes!
  • It was such a treat to welcome the Ross Garden Tours group yesterday, a bus load of lovely garden loving people, chatting about gardens and art and sharing tea and delicious things. Thankyou @sandra_ross_gardener @rossgardentours and @noblegardentours for including us in your incredible itinerary, and to my gorgeous aunt Rob @partake5 (the high-tea queen), fabulous mum and dad and my beautiful boy @_charlie____s for your sheep wrangling, gate opening and all-round gorgeousness. What a beautiful bunch! Safe travels all ❤