Caro
LIDDELL immigrated to Australia in 2001 and became
an Australian citizen on August 19th 2005. She lives in the
Minyon falls area above Byron Bay in Northern New South Wales.
Liddell was first noticed by Michael Fox of Fox Galleries,
during her first solo show in Australia, entitled ‘New
Work 2003 ‘.-The show consisted of large paintings
along with a new suite of abstract drawings. This lead to
Fox Galleries showing Liddell’s work in collaboration
with Metro Arts later the same year. The show was entitled ‘Palimpsest’ and
featured major works from her London period, work influenced
from her Bundanon Residency and new work from that year.
Here she gained a reputation for her large abstract contemporary
paintings and fine abstract drawings, created with graphite,
pastel and wash.
Her work was published in 2004 by Fox Galleries, in a publication
entitled ‘the field’, the title of her exhibition
held that year. It has been widely distributed through out schools,
Art schools & galleries. In 2004 a 30 minute documentary
was made of Liddell, she discusses her work of the last eight
years and elucidates on her working process. It has been distributed
and studied though out the Educational establishments.
Liddell did not attend college till 1997, but
carved out a reputation for her self as a printer, working
in print studios through out London. After a travel period
in Australia she produced a series of prints reflecting her
vibrant experiences of outback Australia. They where noticed
by the Australian art dealer and cultural attaché Rebecca
Hossack. Hossack first noticed Liddell’s work in 1990
while she was working for an art publisher making erotic pop-up
books. Through this association with Hossack, Liddell developed
a significant reputation in the UK over the next decade. In
an idiosyncratic way she firstly completed a Masters degree
in Barcelona. Followed by a Batchelor of Arts at Winchester
School of Art in the UK. She maintained solo exhibitions at
the Hossack gallery through out her studies- Her work has sold
to private contemporary art buyers and collectors of Fine Art.
She was ‘artist in resident’ at Intaglio
Printmakers in Bermondsey London. Here she had the scope, time
and opportunity to experiment with materials. Liddell’s
particular interest within printmaking is the deeply etched
copper plate. These are large prints, produced in series of
small editions. Pic – me with tapas etching
“
Transmigration & Other Journeys” was to début
her first paintings & large prints. We see the development
of her work, “ becoming more considered & shorn of
embellishment, more ghostly and reflective, more deeply felt’.
( see review Luke Elwes. Galleries Art Review London 1998)
She was awarded a residency in Alice Springs in the Northern
Territory,
co-ordinated by Hossack and Coo-ee Aboriginal Art. At the time
she was just as occupied with the physical challenge as she
was with the artistic challenge. Working and living in a tin
shed, she drew and sketched in hard back sketch books while
enduring the unaccustomed heat, insects and spiders. The vastness
of the Australian outback, to which she had been so attracted
during her first visit a decade earlier, influenced her paintings.
She found herself beginning to work on a much larger scale
than before.
This residency culminated in a series of work
concerned with journeying, caught between two continents, a
theme of man versus marsupial. ‘Pods’ portrays
large vessels containing embryonic marsupial creatures, setting
out on a voyage or maybe a ‘quietus’, the title
of a very large piece painted while at college. Animal and
man feature together in ‘Man Marsupial’ merging
into teratogenic creatures. Literature and animal behaviour
has always been a fascination to Liddell, spending long hours
observing and sketching. In London she frequented Zoological
Museums & libraries.Pic – me with pods painting
Through a series of events over the course of
a decade her work became more associated with what she describes
as “the incredible natural and spiritual elements Australia
possesses” as her future led her into greater contact
with Australia, Australians and Australian-ness. In 2005 Liddell
became an Australian citizen and now considers herself an official
Australian artist.
After college she became Artist in Resident at Intaglio Printmakers
in Bermondsey London. This was to enable her to embark on a
period of study refining her particular interest in deep intaglio
etching and use of colour on the one copper plate.
This was to culminate in an exhibition at Intaglio and a solo
at the Hossack Gallery entitled ‘Transmigration & Other
Journeys’ a unique series of etchings concerned with
the human and animal world. This was also to debut her first
paintings most recognised from this period ‘24 Ways to
Say Kangaroo’, this painting brought together ideas of
communication through body language.
Her second Australian residency was awarded by
the Arthur Boyd Trust at Bundanon in 1999-2000, here she focused
on the Shoalhaven River. The sketches and paintings created
while at Bundanon and back in the studio, reflect her vision
and feelings about her state of limbo between England and Australia.
Her work seems to be asking questions reflecting her own personal
situation. Are rivers barriers or gateways? Are the sand bars
islands of security or prisons of isolation? Undoubtedly the
decision to permanently migrate to Australia, influenced her
thinking at the time. The resulting works are grounded yet
ethereal and urge contemplation.
Liddell made good use of her time at Bundanon, and sketched
and drew each day of her stay, in order to “keep a constant
connection between the eye, the spirit and the image”.
The large canvases, which are the signature marks of her work,
are derived from this intimate process. She firstly builds
up a series of studies by way of drawings, prints and smaller
oil paintings. Next she produces a series of oil sketches on
both paper and canvas to achieve a particular colour or patina. “Like
the drawn line, colour is a personal signature. I work with
oil paint as its natural origins give the colours a vitality
and subtlety that is incomparable.” Finally the painting
is embarked on with its considered layers and form.
In 2002 Caro finally moved to Australia and established a studio
in the beautiful Minyon Falls area near Byron Bay in northern
New South Wales. The following year she travelled to southern
China shortly before her first major Australian exhibition, “Palimpsest” held
at Metro Arts, Brisbane.
The physicality of this subject matter carried over into the
creation of the works for “The Field” exhibition. ‘The
pastel and graphite works on paper are perhaps the most accessible
of these artworks, however closer examination reveals that
they too have been subjected to the force of the artist, “achieved
by an assault upon the thickly pastelled surface, either with
a hammer or a piece of graphite, and even a fistful of nuts”.
Digby Hildreth, ‘Human endurance on a grand scale” Courier
Mail, August 19 2004
“
The Field” exhibition also saw the culmination of a long-held
desire to work in both a sculptural and installation manner.
Though “The 12 Apostles” may appear on the surface
to be Judeo-Christian, its message is also timely to the age
we all find ourselves in. Ultimately, the deeper investigations
of the human soul is the transcending quality of Liddell’s
work, that connects the viewer to the image in art. The writer
John Birmingham described as both “beautiful and disturbing”
2005 finds Liddell coming full circle working
with matter regarding the Australian marsupial, this time in
the form of their scats. Influenced by the paddocks around
her studio, she has observed the marsupials comings goings,
tracks and scats. Drawing large abstract fields, sculpting
enormous curvaceous scats of the pademelons, swamp wallaby,
possums and echidna . Liddell’s’ work continues
to develop, while maintaining a universal language, it is consummately
grounded in its Australian-ness.
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