Artist Statement – Joan Vida
Art has always been my passion, which from the late 1960’s to 2014 was directed mainly at my profession which was the teaching of Art. I taught in Darwin, N.T., Toowoomba, Queensland, Mt Gambier, South Australia and in Melbourne, Victoria.
Teaching Art was stimulating and rewarding, but there was little time to pursue my own artwork. Trips to the Northern and Western areas of Australia provided opportunities to carry out artworks with different media in many of those areas. The rich colours of this vast land were inspirational and I still feel the need to portray the Australian landscape wherever I might be.
A number of large canvas paintings, were later carried out with oil paints. I am drawn to the images of rocks, cliffs and the intricate linear qualities of vegetation in landscape. Such images with their heavily textured surfaces, lent themselves to the application of materials like sand, gravel, bark and plant forms to canvas and being incorporated into compositions that reflect the Australian outback. Rock strata and crevices were accentuated by the use of impasto medium, which built up three dimensional effects.
Since retiring from teaching in April 2014, I have found the most enjoyable art activity that I have engaged in is being part of Plein Air Painting groups. Being with like minded people is most satisfying and the visual stimulus provided by the locations where we meet, cannot help but be an inspiration. I work with different art media, ranging from soft pastels and oil pastels to watercolour and oil paint. Printmaking has also been my passion for many years, particularly in the area of etching. Sometimes while outdoors, I work with an etching needle directly onto a zinc plate that is later etched and printed.
Over the past few years I have exhibited artworks in the following Art Exhibitions:
- Sorrento Rotary Art Shows of 2012, 2013 and 2015.
- CamArt Shows at Camberwell GGS of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016
- Peninsula Plein Air Painting Group Exhibition at Sorrento in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
- “The Studio at Flinders” Gallery – where my work was displayed during 2015 and 2016 in the “Guild Art Gallery” at the Tyabb Art and Craft Village, (rear of the Packing House”), 14 Mornington – Tyabb Rd., Tyabb. Melways 148 H10.
Joan Vida.
Exhibiting at “The Guild Art Gallery”
Tyabb Art and Craft Village
At the rear of the “Packing House”, 14 Mornington – Tyabb Rd.
Tyabb, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.