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“As a painter the image
is everything so I find it difficult to describe my work in
words. However the recurring aspect of my painting that I cannot
escape
is space, emotional space, spiritual, physical and geographical
space.”
English-born artist Caro Liddell seems to
have been destined to live and work in Australia. 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.
Palimpsest is her first major exhibition in this country, however
she first traveled here in 1989 for a six-month stay in the Northern
Territory, before she had commenced any formal training in the
visual arts. Caro spent as much time as possible with Aboriginal
communities, who took her into their confidence and showed her
their ancestral territories rich with rock paintings and carvings.
She was captivated by their art and their stories and took these
experiences back to London where she embarked on a career as
a studio printer and etcher. In 1991 she exhibited a series of
work directly influenced by the indigenous images viewed during
this first stay.
In the period leading to this first exhibition, she learnt the
art of photo-etching which enabled her to assemble disparate
images, change the scales of objects and emboss onto the print.
These techniques have remained with Caro throughout her career
and can be identified in the paintings that followed from her
initial success as a print-maker in London.
Australian art dealer and cultural attaché Rebecca Hossack
first noticed Liddell’s work in London in 1990. Through
this association Caro developed a significant reputation
in the United Kingdom over the next decade as she completed
a
Masters
degree in Barcelona, Spain, had her work acquired by private
and public collections and finally was awarded residencies
in Australia. These residencies would eventually see her
take up
permanent domicile in this country.
During the course of this decade, Caro became concerned with
the fragility and transcience of life, mirroring her own
personal health issues. In 1996 after being awarded the White & Bowker
Purchase Award in London, she stated “my paintings and
prints are concerned with the idea of a transmigration of the
soul.” (1) Hossack said of her work “her pictures
are intricate palimpsests, recording the shifting flows of existence.” (2)
Vanessa Jackson, Head of Painting at the Winchester School of
Art commented “her work has continually celebrated
the mythic and the metaphoric whilst maintaining a contemporary
relationship with her own personal experience.”
A constant theme in
Caro’s work is the investigation
of space and how we inhabit and move between these spaces. In
1998 she undertook research at the Wellcome Institute in London
into ancient scientific visions of the body, its physical – and
its spiritual – mechanism. The resulting body of work continued
her concern with the concept of “crossing over” or “transmigration”;
from inside to outside, man to animal, body to spirit. (4)
This line of enquiry has continued to influence her work
to this day
though in not such a literal sense as the series of paintings
and prints exhibited at the Hossack Gallery, London that
year.
Her first Australian residency followed the "Transmigrations
and Other Journeys" exhibition. This was a three week
stay at 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 while
enduring the unaccustomed heat, insects and spiders. (5)
The vastness of the Australian outback, to which she had
been so
attracted during her first visit a decade earlier, influenced
her paintings and she found herself beginning to work on
a much larger scale than before.
“
Given the combined weight of wood and canvas, the sheer naked
physicality required to take on such a large area is a challenge
in itself. However, combined with the visual challenge, it is
a challenge that drives me”, she says.
Her second Australian residency was awarded by the Arthur Boyd
Trust at Bundanon in 1999. She returned the following year, and
in both visits focused on the Shoalhaven River. The sketches
and paintings created here reflected her vision and feelings
as she immersed herself in the natural beauty of the countryside.
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, made whilst at
Bundanon, influenced her thinking at the time. The resulting
works are grounded yet ethereal and urge contemplation.
Caro 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 eyes, 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 that
is incomparable.” Finally, the physical and visual
challenge of producing the large canvas paintings, with their
complex
layers of oil, wax and form is undertaken.
Figures have been recurrent within Caro’s work. “Whilst
the abstract scape produces a vale of colour and form that is
pleasing to the eye, I find it is the human element that has
the ability to reach out and communicate with the viewer.” At
Bundanon, she explored the interaction between man and nature
as her husband swam in the slow moving rain-misted Shoalhaven
River. In other works, such as “Vein River” the
figures seem to be wandering between an emotional and physical
landscape.
In 2002 Caro finally moved to Australia and established a studio
in the beautiful Minyon Falls area near Lismore in northern New
South Wales. The works created here are the most sparse yet rich
of her career, being characterized by the use of one single figure
within the composition. It is as if Caro is stating that now,
after fulfilling her desire to reside in Australia, she is ready
to embrace the future with all its wonderful uncertainties on
her own terms.
References:
(1) “Lawyers name artist winner”, The Extra newspaper,
London, August 8 1996
(2) “Transmigrations and Other Journeys”, media
release, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, October 1998
(3) Jackson, Vanessa, reference for Caro Liddell, May 5 1997
(4) Elwes, Luke, Galleries, London Gallery Guide, October 1998.
(5) Till, Crispin, “Caro’s at home living in shed”,
Centralian Advocate, January 22 1999 |
