By Sheridan Palmer
FOR the artist Jennifer Marshall the sea is a means of communing with the world around her. During the 10 years she spent living at Venus Bay, her art reflected the beautiful, wild beaches of South Gippsland.
In 2010 she moved from Venus Bay to Hobart where she continues to paint the Tasmanian coastline and ocean, but the works in this exhibition at the Meeniyan Art Gallery in October form part of a series titled “Across the Strait”. It pays special homage to the remarkable sea sponges washed up on the shores of this spectacular Victorian region and gathered on regular morning walks along the beaches of Eagles Nest, Venus Bay and Cape Liptrap.
Jennifer’s prints and gouaches indicate the remarkable variety of the marine species, also known as porifera. Their surreal shapes range from delicate to massive, foliated and filigreed. Each sponge, in its living state, was a complex eco-system in itself, hosting hundreds of microorganisms. Abstract in form and sculptural in dimension, they often resemble the human lung and, indeed, are the marine counterpart, cleansing, filtering and performing as the lungs of the sea.
Over two years, Jennifer drew, painted and made prints of these remarkable objects, investigating current scientific research that usually referenced environmental issues such as the devastation of the sea forests through excessive and repeated deep sea trawling – it has been equated to the clear felling of land forests. At times, the sheer force of nature’s storms and sea blizzards affects poriferan reefs and what is washed up are the shipwrecked state of dying sponges.
Combining several print mediums, such as dry-point, etching and woodblock, Jennifer has translated the marine flora into prints and paintings, transforming each one from their natural state into a unique and mysterious structure, their sinewy and tiny channels resembling the veins or alveoli of the human anatomy. Her colours of dark sea green, purple, sepia and turquoise, black, red and mauve are like colours found in exotic flowers, which tends to give them an altogether new visual meaning.
Regarded as one of Australia’s most esteemed printmakers Jennifer Marshall’s exhibition provides us with a rare insight into her work but it is also a spectacular homage to the humble sea sponge.
Across the Strait, Series 1. Jennifer Marshall. Meeniyan Art Gallery, October 3-30. Opening Sunday, October 7, 2pm
FOR the artist Jennifer Marshall the sea is a means of communing with the world around her. During the 10 years she spent living at Venus Bay, her art reflected the beautiful, wild beaches of South Gippsland.
In 2010 she moved from Venus Bay to Hobart where she continues to paint the Tasmanian coastline and ocean, but the works in this exhibition at the Meeniyan Art Gallery in October form part of a series titled “Across the Strait”. It pays special homage to the remarkable sea sponges washed up on the shores of this spectacular Victorian region and gathered on regular morning walks along the beaches of Eagles Nest, Venus Bay and Cape Liptrap.
Jennifer’s prints and gouaches indicate the remarkable variety of the marine species, also known as porifera. Their surreal shapes range from delicate to massive, foliated and filigreed. Each sponge, in its living state, was a complex eco-system in itself, hosting hundreds of microorganisms. Abstract in form and sculptural in dimension, they often resemble the human lung and, indeed, are the marine counterpart, cleansing, filtering and performing as the lungs of the sea.
Over two years, Jennifer drew, painted and made prints of these remarkable objects, investigating current scientific research that usually referenced environmental issues such as the devastation of the sea forests through excessive and repeated deep sea trawling – it has been equated to the clear felling of land forests. At times, the sheer force of nature’s storms and sea blizzards affects poriferan reefs and what is washed up are the shipwrecked state of dying sponges.
Combining several print mediums, such as dry-point, etching and woodblock, Jennifer has translated the marine flora into prints and paintings, transforming each one from their natural state into a unique and mysterious structure, their sinewy and tiny channels resembling the veins or alveoli of the human anatomy. Her colours of dark sea green, purple, sepia and turquoise, black, red and mauve are like colours found in exotic flowers, which tends to give them an altogether new visual meaning.
Regarded as one of Australia’s most esteemed printmakers Jennifer Marshall’s exhibition provides us with a rare insight into her work but it is also a spectacular homage to the humble sea sponge.
Across the Strait, Series 1. Jennifer Marshall. Meeniyan Art Gallery, October 3-30. Opening Sunday, October 7, 2pm