In November we present an insight into the artist Jane Creenaune who is celebrating her 10th year with Red Hill Gallery with an exhibition of her works.
Jane is an exceptional artist who has been with the gallery since 2001. During this time we have seen Jane grow from painting part time, whilst still teaching to becoming a full time artist in 2004. During the entire period Jane’s popularity has continued to grow with our clients and is now a Professional, practicing Visual Artist.
Jane Creenaune | Exhibition Nov 2011 at Red Hill Gallery
Along the way Jane has won many major awards, travelled overseas to further gain experience and knowledge of her passion -art.
We have seen her work progress with her identifiable figurative acrylic paintings, to charcoal and works on paper further study had her producing etchings in her own mode. Her next foray was into the beautiful Bronze Sculptures that typify her own unique style. All the time her passion for her craft was obvious both to the gallery but more importantly to our clients. Jane has a large following in Queensland and now exhibits in other states around Australia and in Italy. We are proud to be her first major official gallery and fully support and encourage her as she continues her artistic journey.
We obtain an intimate look into the artist herself and discover more on this multitalented, yet private, elegant artist who is dedicated to her craft.
AC: What inspires you to create?
JC: A reaction to the world around me as I see it or feel it might be.
AC: In Three words describe your art.
JC: Thoughtful, subtle, reflective
AC: How do you spend your leisure time?
JC: Walking with my dog Tully, traveling and looking at artwork. Often I can combine all these activities at once.
AC: Who is your role model or person you most admire?
JC: At the moment it is Bartolini and Degas.
AC: Share something with us about yourself that we don’t know.
JC: Both sets of my grandparents migrated to Australia in the early 19th century from England and Sicily respectively and settled in North Queensland.
AC: What music do you listen to while you create?
JC: I no longer work to music. My new studio is in a manse set in a lovely garden with a café downstairs. The sounds of people, food cooking and view from my windows are just right.
AC: What was the last book you enjoyed?
JC: A book on Lorenzo Bartolini – a nineteenth century Italian sculptor extraordinaire.
AC: What does your art mean to you?
JC: A means of expressing my experience of the word and a satisfaction within the activity of making the work in drawing, painting or sculpture.
AC: You have recently completed a Master of Fine Art by Research at the Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University, Melbourne . Tell us briefly about this.
JC: This two year research project provided a way for me to connect my academic and personal interest in identity and migration, particularly Italian Australian, with my work as an artist. As I produced much of the work in the faculty sculpture studio, I learnt much about the fundamentals of casting and patination of bronze.
AC: You recently completed a Residency & Exhibition Project: Italy hosted jointly by Artegiro and The Monash University Centre Prato.Tell us about it.
JC: My generous and supportive hosts, Artegiro and Monash University Prato Centre, provided this wonderful opportunity in which I could develop new ideas. My project was as much about the process of making new work and forming relationships within the local arts and business communities of Montefiascone and in Toscana as it was about the final product, that is, the exhibition of work. The new sculptures are characterized by a translation of ideas about identify and migration through experimentation with new mediums and approaches.
As a sculptor who exclusively worked in cast bronze to this point, I adapted to the constraints of time and place of a 6 week, multi-sited residency. I turned to new materials – gesso, resin, marble, stone gold leaf as the means through which I might realize my ideas.
Jane Creenaune | Artegiro and Monash University Prato Centre
Jane’s Masters Supervisor, Prof. Bernard Hoffert, offered this critique and insight into Jane’s work in the opening address at her exhibition in Prato, Italy in July 2011:
Jane is a distinguished sculptor known for her small scale bronze work. She continues the tradition of bronzes initiated in the Renaissance by Florentine artists of the 15th century, asserting the continued importance and relevance of metal casting as the basis of art; through her art she bridged between past and present and offers the definitive example of how visual art in Australia can be enriched by the Prato residency program. Her work explores contemporary themes using a traditional art form, but projecting it into the 21st century, exploring an expressive and emotionally evocative language of visual imagery which holds meaning for contemporary eyes.
http://www.artdes.monash.edu.au/finearts/staff/bhoffert.html
