In Nature’s Realm
Jennifer Keeler-Milne
Australian Galleries Sydney
5 – 23 November 2024
While creating artworks for this exhibition I encountered the music of Dvořák.
Based in Prague at the end of the late 19th century, Dvořák created a musical score: a trilogy he called In Nature’s Realm. It represents a microcosm of nature with rhythmic passages, layered sounds, ranges of instrumentation and repeating motifs. It is sometimes described as landscape painting in music. I resonated deeply with this musical piece and the echoes that paralleled the making of my trilogy of art works, so I have borrowed his title for this exhibition.
During 2023 and 2024 I have been immersed in creating a series of paintings, drawings and sculptures, all taking inspiration from aspects of the natural world. A place where I can be nourished and opened up and out to something greater than myself: space, light, colour, beauty, line, detail, mystery, surprise and beauty.
The first part of the trilogy in this exhibition are the colour filled paintings. Made after the experience of being in specific places - the autumnal landscape of Mt Wilson or within Centennial Park close to the mirrored ponds. Creating an atmosphere of these experiences is at their essence. Like the 17th century Dutch landscape artists, my work is a product of both observation and imagination.
Drawing is a central and vital component of my practice. I often favour working in natural willow charcoal on textured watercolour paper. I save the white of the paper to draw the space around the subject. The black is the charcoal, full of void and mystery. This series of drawings expresses aspects of the plant world to which I have been drawn: a large beech branch, small leaves, blossoms or a south coast hillside. Other drawings are made with ink.
In August 2023, I spent a month in a garden in Bali where I drew the skeletal leaves of an Elkhorn plant every day, making a suite of 50 ink drawings. Later, six steel rod sculptures were created based on these drawings. The sculptures form the third and final part of the trilogy
My hope is that within my trilogy of paintings, drawings and sculptures you will encounter aspects of the atmosphere, beauty, mystery and music found In Nature’s Realm.
Jennifer Keeler-Milne 2024.