clare mcfarlane

fragment

22 may - 20 june 2015

Since graduating from Curtin University in 1999 Clare McFarlane has continued to reference the history of scientific enquiry and lyrical Pre-Raphaelite patterning in her paintings.

She combines this with the detailed depiction of Australian flora and fauna. In recent years birds have become a major focus in her work, and in keeping with scientific enquiry and the historical nature of specimen collection, they are dead birds. She explains, "I think they are the most expressive and challenging of my subjects. They are such beautiful creatures in life and in death their bodies, crushed and broken, are so filled with poetics of loss, fleeting life and realities of death".

Her exhibition, titled Fragment, includes "studies of the backs and fronts, anterior and posterior, antecedent and subsequent. Not quite mirror images - but pairs - binary systems - fore and aft but not in opposition." They are a "quiet meditation on the relationships of form and structure - anatomy and articulation".

The incorporation of aerosol spraying in her paintings is also a recent development, inspired by the street art commissions she has been receiving since 2011. These experiences have encouraged her to work on larger canvases and increase the scale of her 'specimen' and her brushstrokes. They continue to convey detail, but without the previous painstaking miniaturisation. The results are powerful.

Clare's artworks can be found in several collections including the City of Perth, Cruthers Collection, Curtin University, Artbank, Joondalup Hospital and Edith Cowan University, and on the walls of laneways throughout the City of Perth and Subiaco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wing i acrylic + aerosol on canvas 100 x 150cm 2015 $6,500 sold
shuddering echo i acrylic + aerosol on canvas 90 x 140cm 2012-13 $6,000	shuddering echo ii 90 x 140cm 2012-13 $6,000
wing ii acrylic + aerosol on canvas 100 x 150cm 2015 $6,500 sold
shadow i acrylic + aerosol on canvas 45 x 66cm 2015 $1,100	shadow ii acrylic + aerosol on canvas 45 x 66cm 2015 $1,100
arm i acrylic + aerosol on canvas 50.5 x 91cm 2015 $1,800
turnicidae - study i acrylic on paper 33 x 29cm 2014 $440	turnicidae - study i acrylic on paper 33 x 29cm 2014 $440
arm ii acrylic + aerosol on canvas 50.5 x 91cm 2015 $1,800