The oil paintings of Isaac Walter Jenner (1836-1902) are executed in a fine and detailed manner which invite close and careful viewing. Like many artists, Jenner used sketching or ‘underdrawing’ to develop subjects beneath oil paint layers. Here, we highlight the artist’s style and detail some of the discoveries found when we look at Jenner’s…
Continue reading » “Laying down the lines: Isaac Walter Jenner’s underdrawing”
In ‘weather paintings’, Australian artist Lindy Lee looks beyond figuration to embody the forces of nature. Lee creates abstract, constellation-like images that speak to the power of fire, wind and water. To make these works, Lee meditatively flings Chinese ink across sheets of paper and burns holes in the surfaces with a soldering iron. Afterwards,…
Continue reading » “Chance is a key element of weather paintings”
Australian artist Jonny Niesche’s artworks investigate how we perceive and experience the space around us. In these three pieces — Schein blossom (feueur), Schein blossom (mond), and Schein blossom (sonnen) 2020 (illustrated) — Niesche stretches multiple layers of digitally printed sheer voile fabric over one another, creating vibrating and pulsating patterns that can be seen…
Australian artist Isaac Walter Jenner (1836–1902) painted Cape Chudleigh, Coast of Labrador in 1893 and reworked it in 1895 (illustrated). The grand history painting depicts the search led by British naval officer, hydrographer, and explorer Sir Edward Belcher (1799–1877) to rescue the ill-fated 1845 British expedition by Sir John Franklin (1786–1847) which set out to…
Continue reading » “Isaac Walter Jenner’s grand history mystery”
We delve into a major reframing project for prominent Queensland ornithological artist and taxidermist Anthony Alder’s (1838-1915) painting Red-tailed Black Cockatoos c.1895 currently on display in the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art collection. Anthony Alder (Standing 3rd from the right) DELVE DEEPER: Go behind-the-scenes as we conserve ‘Red-tailed Black Cockatoos’ The oil on canvas Red-tailed…
Continue reading » “Go behind-the-scenes as we reframe ‘Red-tailed Black Cockatoos’”
This watercolour (illustrated) is a preparatory sketch for the oil painting Slab cottage, Bowen Hills 1894 (illustrated). Isaac Walter Jenner (1836-1902) was interested in the picturesque subject rather than Brisbane’s impressive commercial and public buildings that were already embellishing Queen Street, the main thoroughfare of the city of Brisbane (illustrated). ‘Sketch for ‘Slab cottage, Bowen…
Continue reading » “Step back in time to Brisbane’s pioneering days”
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.