Meet Evelyn Antonysen as she explores the joy in lost edges
Everything about my art gives me joy; exploring and experimenting with all media, the absolute visual pleasure of mark making, the feel of/ tactile experience of using materials, analysing, problem solving, telling stories, sharing/communicating with others, teaching, the pride when people like my “babies” enough to purchase them, expressing emotional responses to our beautiful island home.
What is not to love! With art, while I am physically able, I will create.
A Yearning for the Art Room
In the same way that I love all art media and styles, I enjoyed all subjects at school. Encouraged along an academic stream, art did not fit as I focused on Sciences.
I remember a constant yearning to be in the art room and I dabbled at home but it was not until teaching Mathematics and Science at Kings Meadows High School that I attended art classes, oil painting with Greg Waddle, through Adult Education.
I kept doing my own exploration with my mother who also enjoyed art, and used to sell work in Launceston. In the early 1980’s Eunice Horne told me about watercolour sessions at West Ulverstone Community House and I found my niche (though I do wander).
Devoting More Time to Art
Although still teaching, I found myself devoting more and more time to art especially when vision issues became increasingly evident to the point of being black blind in my right eye. All the lectures and warnings I heard at age 12 when I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, took on more relevance and I felt a need to paint while I still had sufficient eyesight.
I wanted to experience all I could and build positive visual memories through careful observation.
Botanical Art
I was initially painting botanical works and birds, carefully rendered with the observation skills of the Scientist (my University training). But as with many artists the careful rendering has increasingly been overtaken by a need to communicate emotional response, mood and atmosphere.
Photography, which I also love and similarly taught can record accurately but much of my painting now is about mood.
I relate to Monet, “Other artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat, and that’s the end. I want to paint the air which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat, the beauty of the air in which these objects are located”.
Interconnectivity
I do not see things as separate. Everything is inter-connected . Science is integral to my art, as is music and words. With Science, it is not just observations of Biology and Geology, the natural world, but also the physics of colour and light and the chemistry of the behaviour of water, oil and wax plus pigment.
I make many of my own paints using pure artists’ pigment. My Science lab/my art studio are but one. I develop new ways of working and will never stop experimenting, learning and sharing my enthusiasm with anyone who is willing to listen or try. We all have “artist” in us but sometimes people have not met their medium.
Inspiring Students
I run a weekly watercolour class at my studio/gallery (which is open to the public) in Ulverstone and am available for other sessions for individuals or small groups for half or full day workshops or a series of classes as a short course. I am very flexible although Tuesday afternoons are taken (watercolour class) and Sundays I have a wonderful space at Penguin Undercover Market where I love to chat about art, share my work and help others become excited about the wonderful and therapeutic world of creating.
Beginners or experienced, young or more mature, even those who are challenged I have experienced all in my teaching, ranging from playgroup to TAFE in regular schools, special schools and privately.
Listening to Your Yearnings
It is a wonderful journey and looking back now as a professional artist I am so pleased of my decisions not to ignore the yearning inside… the yearning to create.
But I have been surprised at the number of times I have felt the art world to be narrow minded in that rather than encouraging an artist to enthusiastically explore the attempt is to compartmentalise. What style? What medium? What size? What related products?
I understand that it makes for ease of describing an artist’s work and I understand the “perfecting” but for me it is the always moving along, exploring experiencing it all that keeps my Gemini personality alive. I may never be the best “…….” artist but to be true to myself I must be versatile and combine media. I cannot be boxed in happily.
Joy in Finding Lost Edges
It is a quicker journey to “the top” if you do choose one medium/style/subject focus but that is not for me. By wanting to do it all there is always someone else at each “peak” but the journey is so much more varied and fulfilling for some of us.
But if I had to fit in “boxes”…. Medium would be watercolour; Subject … the natural environment of Tasmania; Style…. Impressionistic with a Zen influence and lots of lost edges.
Painting to Self Discover
It takes a lot of painting to discover oneself so my advice to others is be playful. Explore and don’t skimp on materials.
Be bold. Break boundaries. Question. Challenge convention. Don’t see anything as a failure. Let the medium lead the way and follow its lead rather than approaching with a need to always be in control. That I find is the most difficult thing.
To realise there is no “right”…. “wrong”/ so called mistakes are an opportunity to go on a different track, be unique, be truly creative.
About the Artist
Tasmanian born, Tasmanian resident, painter of Tasmania!
Watercolour is the perfect medium to depict the light, atmosphere and textures of our landscape and Tasmania has the perfect climate to allow a wet approach. For more than 30 years I have explored painting media and won awards with most but it is watercolour which consistently lures me back.
I have exhibited widely, including internationally and now work and teach from my studio in Ulverstone.
Evelyn was the winner of the Artist in Residence Trail Tasmania Art Exhibition 2022 with her painting titled “Hope”.
Find Evelyn on Facebook and Instagram and visit her website for news about events, classes, works and exhibitions.
Evelyn is represented by the Nolan gallery in Hobart.
Artist Profile Stories
I want there to be more arts and crafts in our world, in our communities and in our own lives. Hopefully you’ve found this blog post inspiring and interesting.
So I’m creating, with your help, Art Trails Tasmania, allowing all of us who feel this love to create more of it.
And the Art Trails Tasmania blog is a key part of making this happen, telling the stories of members. It’s about what they have happening with workshops and classes, exhibitions, open studio trails, where to find their outlets, markets, fairs and festivals so you can shop their creations as well as their art and craft retreats.
Also being shared are the supporters of our artists, the galleries, shops, cafes, art societies and groups, places to stay and artist in residencies.
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