A graduate of the Queensland College of Art Adrienne Williams paints beautiful depictions of the Australian Bush and Fauna. Her work has a tranquil and calming quality that is indicative of artists from the Heidelberg school, while stylistically totally different she captures the essence of Australia in her stylistic approach to landscape.
AC: Describe your art in a sentence.
AW: My art is plein air landscape scribbles and scratchings which develop into collagraphs and oil paintings in the studio.
AC: Who or what inspired you to become an artist?
AW: When I was young the world of art was like a foreign country, but my beautiful mum was a huge nurturer of my early scribbles and scratchings. Through art college and my early design career I didn’t feel I had anything mature to say in paint, but in my early 30’s I met a great mentor, painter John McConachie, in Brisbane and he inspired me greatly with his thinking, his work and his dedication to his painting.
AC: Why do you paint the scenes you do?
AW: I’ve always felt really at home in landscape, and most of my spare time and holidays are spent outdoors. Early bushwalking pursuits evolved into a passion for the environment and I do feel really compelled to paint about this, but in a gentle way. This current series, Closer to Home, is exploring the growing of food alongside areas of natural beauty that I see first hand in my new home in the North Burnett.
AC: What music do you listen to while painting?
AW: I don’t seem to be able to settle with music playing and discovered years ago that audio books keep me completely grounded at the easel, and public libraries now have a fantastic download system for audio books which Is handy when you live 50km from the library. When I’m tiring in the afternoons I’ll put on ‘old’ music that I know all the words to, and will sing at the top of my lungs to the dog. Lately she’s been hearing my interpretation of Van’s ‘Astral Weeks’, and my very bad Bee Gees falsetto.
AC: Tell our readers something about yourself that may surprise them?
AW: In contrast to the ‘gentle’ mentioned above, I have a mid-life crisis 650 Suzuki V-Strom I bought in 2006. I haven’t been on it for a year, but after the opening at Red Hill Gallery I’m going to dust it off.
AC: What is your favourite quote or saying?
AW: ‘If you’re not working hard, you’re not painting’ Jeffrey Smart
AC: If you could work with any other artist from any era who would it be and why?
AW: It would have to be Monet, the way he saw colour and light… there’s a lot to learn from that.
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