Page 80 - Annual Review 2010

80 ReVeAL
Jenny watson
The private landscape 1987
Jenny watson explores ideas
associated with the ‘feminine’ and
personal experience. The private
landscape depicts a literal and
metaphorical place: the world
surrounding her former home at
Lilydale, outside melbourne; and
a projection of her inner psyche.
the work recalls a time past, and
suggests isolated memories the
Left: Jenny watson | australia b.1951 | The private landscape 1987 |
oil, synthetic polymer paint on gouache, and collage on canvas | 208 x
172cm | gift of John potter and roz macallan through the queensland
art gallery foundation 2010. donated through the australian
government’s cultural gifts program | collection: queensland art
gallery
content of which we cannot be
sure — happiness, sadness, guilt,
loneliness or contentedness. watson’s
semirural landscape is peppered with
outbuildings and populated by a cast
both feline and equine. a striking
green horse appears to have come
from a stack of playing cards, collaged
in place, spot lit and immovable on
the country road through the centre of
the composition. rendered flat on the
canvas, watson scratches and scrawls
her subjects directly into the paint or
sticks them on with glue.
the work has an aesthetic of
immediacy, suggesting a work driven
by the artist’s necessity.
this work was a gift of John potter and
roz macallan through the queensland
art gallery foundation.