Above image: View of the gardens at Mount Wilson, photograph by Jennifer Keeler-Milne
“The vibrant season
Chroma of amber and rust
Nature’s masterpiece”
Robyn Noble
In 2019, The Old School at Mount Wilson commenced its volunteer based, not for profit artist in residence program. The one month residency aims to share the beauty and diversity of Mount Wilson, providing an opportunity for emerging and established artists to engage with the local community, and environment.
Throughout May, artist Jennifer Keeler-Milne has brought her practice to the Mount Wilson area, offering a mutual sharing of inspiration between artist and community. Jennifer has been producing new works from The Old School studio and led a concertina sketchbook workshop for local creatives.
Jennifer evokes an atmospheric depiction of nature. For the past decade she has made captivating its mysticism and evocative character her underlying objective. The luminescence of autumn colours has transformed the Mount Wilson scenery, inspiring a series of new original works.
The beauty and colour is almost overwhelming. I found in the first week that I need to look down and felt consoled by a line in a Wendell Berry poem that said “The ground is wise”…. My first drawing and painting was of a dandelion and then a lichen covered branch, then a small painting of moss.
Jennifer’s studio at The Old School will be open to the public this Saturday May 28th.
For more information click here.
View of the gardens at Mount Wilson, photograph by Jennifer Keeler-Milne
Work in progress at the studio, photograph by Jennifer Keeler-Milne
Work in progress at the studio, photograph by Jennifer Keeler-Milne
Work in progress at the studio, photograph by Jennifer Keeler-Milne
Image: Jennifer Keeler-Milne, A New Heaven and a New Earth (2018), charcoal on paper, 135 x 160 cm.
Congratulations to Jennifer Keeler-Milne who has been selected as a Finalist in the 19th Mandorla Art Award with her deeply powerful charcoal drawing ‘A New Heaven and a New Earth’
‘My practice is concerned with depicting the natural world, including the sky as a subject for contemplation. Working purely in black and white stands in for the opposition of numerous elements; darkness & light, void & physical matter, mystery & beauty. A new heaven and a new earth’ is a direct response to the Revelation quote and its cosmic re-imagining of our universe. I have sought to capture this by depicting the heavens and earth in a state of dynamic flux. Onto this (in the right hand corner) a new city is projected. A range of architectural styles are drawn to symbolise how a new Jerusalem may look: a place of diversity for all people to live peacefully side by side.’
-Jennifer Keeler-Milne, 2018
The Mandorla Art Award employs a thematic Christian inspiration that changes with each exhibition. These inspirations are defined by quotations from the Bible and all participating artists are requested to interpret these in their own way. This year’s theme quote is from the Book of Revelations, ‘And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Rev 21:1-2).
This year the art prize will be judged by; Dr Stefano Carboni, Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia; Jarrod McKenna, Teaching Pastor at Cornerstone Church and co-founder of #LoveMakesAWay; and Anne Ryan, Curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The Mandorla Art Award exhibition will be held at Turner Galleries, Perth from 1 – 30 June.
Click here to view the Mandorla Art Award
Biography
Born in Melbourne, lives and works in Sydney as a practicing artist, she holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts and a Master of Art Administration. A former museum educator with the Art Gallery of New South Wales and lecturer at Sydney University, UTS and the National Art School, Jennifer also runs her own drawing school, Dare to Draw, teaching the principles and techniques of drawing.
Jennifer has had several solo exhibitions in Sydney, as well as group shows in Hong Kong and Paris, were she completed a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts. Jennifer was a finalist several times in the Dobell Prize for Drawing, as well as the Kedumba Drawing Award, Fleurieu Peninsula Art Prize, Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, and was also awarded the Fred Williams Family Prize in 1991.
She has exhibited in many public and regional institutions including the Art Gallery of NSW (Sydney), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (NSW), The Museum of Economic Botany (Adelaide), The Glasshouse Regional Gallery (Port Macquarie), Grafton Regional Gallery (NSW), Orange Regional Art Gallery (NSW), Tweed River Art Gallery (NSW), Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery (NSW), New England Regional Art Gallery (NSW), Casula Powerhouse (NSW), as well as several universities such as the University of Sydney, University of Technology and University of Western Sydney (Sydney), Australian National University (Canberra) and the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne).
Her work is held in the collection of the AGNSW, Artbank and the Victorian College of the Arts, as well as private collections in London, New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne. Jennifer is represented by Australian Galleries in Sydney and Melbourne.