Winner of the 2013 Lesley Skinner Traditional Landscape prize, Dungog based artist Simone Turner-Ryan chats to Paul Andrew about childhood memory, her dislike of " man made objects" and her passion for John Gould and dogs.
Do you have a vivid childhood memory about art, a time and place when art made a distinctive impression on you?
Do you have a vivid childhood memory about art, a time and place when art made a distinctive impression on you?
My first trip to the New South Wales Art Gallery, as a girl from
the bush walking through the large rooms of the gallery, looking at the usual
Melbourne male heroes, when suddenly I came around a corner and looked
into a gold framed room. The Visit by the
Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, by Sir Edward John Poynter (1836 –
1919). I can’t resist it.
Did you grow up in a family and home setting where art was a way of life?
Growing up, we were all use to physical work, cutting firewood,
barking and splitting fence posts on weekends and school holidays. During
school holidays we also spent a lot of time on a sheep and cattle property
called Mernot, near Gloucester, NSW. It’s owned by Mr. Lindsey Hyem and brother
Keith and they influenced me greatly. Collections of bird eggs from around the
world, limited edition John Gould bird books with life size images. National
Geographic and Natural History Magazines handed down to me with posters of
wildlife both painted and photographed. Inspired by Scientific Illustrators, I
was always picking garden plants to draw and watercolour painting.
Your art training background?
My background ability, comes from my father, Mr Walter H.
Turner, named after an uncle who was a sniper during the war. Jim as he is
known, used to draw for other children in class, as I did. His attention to
detail in his drawings is phenomenal, he is also colour blind, not being able
to see the colour red.
Art training – Mr Max Ellem taught me how to shade in 4th class,
Dungog Primary and High. The only colours I learnt about were the primary
colours, as I couldn’t afford to buy all the colours produced, I had to make my
own. I started painting commissions before I left school and decided to follow
this path, whilst juggling hospitality jobs. P.S even today I mix my own
colours using the primary colours, not off the shelf fancy named colours. I
suppose I’m like a musician who plays by ear and cannot read music. I mix the
colours I see but don’t know their names.
How did you develop an interest in realist painting? Was it realism from
the outset of your art career or did you experiment in other styles too?
No doubt from the outset, I was inspired by scientific
illustrators like John Gould, hence realism. I have not experimented with different
styles but have experimented with mediums from my then environment, the bush.
Being selective loggers, Pipe – the rotten guts or the heart of
a felled mahogany tree, is a rich red/brown clay like substance, with a strong
smell, watered down to paint with on paper. I love painting on board or metal
with enamel. The paint flattens itself and dries quick. Oil – I don’t care for.
Acrylic is by far my favourite medium because it dries quick.
Tell about what you love most about realism as a style?
Realism Style – I love realism, it’s my religion. I believe
in recording our era - time in history, although I don’t paint events that
upset me, they are important, I just prefer to leave that part of life to
someone else to record.
The most challenging thing about realism in other peoples eye’s?
Like religion or politics, if you don’t like it, at least show some
respect.
I have discovered in time that realism is so easy for anyone to
judge. They love it because it tells their story as in a commission or just
pulls at the heart strings, sentimental, humorous or just plan cute. They hate
it because it looks to much like a photograph, it’s not painting, it’s not art,
never mind, I’ve had more thumbs ups than thumbs downs and it sells. Touch
wood!
The
township of Dungog is clearly an inspiration in the Lower Hinter Region?
Dungog is my life. It’s where I will be buried, preferable in a
chocolate lined coffin. Having three generations on my mother’s French,
Egyptian, Aussie heritage side buried at Dungog and three generations of
English, German, Australian South Seas Islander and Aussie heritage on my
father’s side buried at Quart Pot Cemetery, good luck trying to keep me out of
the shire. Both parents came from family owned dairies, but the love of timber
for my father was greater. Living and working in the bush, we had the best of
both worlds.
You have
recently won the Lesley Skinner Prize at the Dungog Art Society Exhibition?
Winning the Lesley Skinner Traditional Landscape prize this year
at the Dungog Art Society Art Show, is an honour. I knew Lesley as a painter. We had a mutual
respect, something you can feel and see, it’s a wonderful feeling. I have even
seen it this week in mutual friends and fellow water colourists Mrs Ira Morgan
and Mr Rene Brager. Like the old saying goes you don’t know what you have until
you lose it.
As for the prize money, this is the second time I have really
needed it to pay the rego or green slip, next month. True.
Tell me
about your award winning work?
Tillegra Crossing – my mother’s family owned this land. It’s
where the Tillegra Dam wall, was proposed to go. Cutting Posts 1980’s –
based on one of the first ever photos I took of our family working in the bush.
Enamel painted on a 31 inch round saw blade, it’s still sharp too!
JOB:DUN – again respect for anyone working the land, the last
link.
I was
enchanted by the work with the two Kelpies, tell me about this work pictured
above?
It’s called; JOB : DUN - Completed on 23/5/2013.
Medium Acrylic Size 18 x 20 inch Ampersand Gessoboard. This
painting came about, for my love of Red Kelpies – working dogs in general. The
photo I took originally, it was perfect timing and meant to be! From the
Jacaranda in full bloom behind the white obelisk to the signage of distance to
surrounding towns, a little artistic licence, leaving out a light pole and
corner of a tray back ute, parked in front of me.
Yes! 69.5 hrs to make people smile and feel proud of a small
rural town. The process of painting flows easy when your heart and soul are in
your work. I must admit by the time I painted the obelisk, Toyota and bitumen
road, I realized how much I despise man-made objects – ALL THIS FOR THE DOGS!!
Visit Simone's Blog
Visit Simone's Blog