Photograph courtesy of Viva Photography, Subiaco
Both dreams and memories are both personal and universal so I hope that everyone can take something from this collection of paintings in some way. I am attempting to draw the viewer in and to have him or her experience and grasp the ‘puzzle’ and by bringing in a bit of themselves too. My work deals a lot with identity and the figures search to find themselves, as mothers, as women, as children, as artists. The women in our family constantly recall memories and stories from the past and ‘dreaming’ is very much encouraged.
I draw and paint from imagination, instead of from life, as this gives me a freedom to express and explore ideas and themes. My work is often large-scale, brightly coloured with primal and primitive compositions with their motifs and content invariably overshadowing discussion of their formal properties. I come from Romanesque and Mughal heritage and this too permeates my work.
I am known and am unapologetic for my female perspective in my artworks. I try to create a bond between realism as their defining style and a narrative which focuses on single moments, mysterious and revealing at the same time. Most works manifest a distillation of collected experiences into a visual unity, time and feeling. There is an essence of myself, combined with elements of alter egos and moods to match any given day. Art inevitably reveals your life and you as a person, exposing you to your audience, and you become very aware of what you choose to present and what you choose to hold back or, maybe, modify.
There are so many mysteries in life. Motherhood is one of them and a subject that is quite a significant part of my work. It dominates the way you take. No matter how much you think you’re going to be able to keep going on your route, it really affects you. Nurturing kids, (even now with adult sons, daughter and daughters-in-laws), nurturing your creativity, all of that still feeds into my work in a very positive way.
‘Creativity and nurturing have become intertwined. All becomes quite a significant part of my work.’
Regina Noakes 2019
