Jennings Kerr Ochre Lawson
Sensory Wonder
Many people including myself have recently lost their sense of smell (hopefully temporarily). It is incredible how dependent we are on our senses and how they guide us along in daily life and how our experiences occur through them. Places have a way of staying with us, infusing their characteristics with our psyche through our senses. I often recall different regions visited on road trips or holidays, they come back through smells, touch, tastes, sounds, visions. These memories and associations bind with our personalities and help position us in the world. Ochre Lawson draws so much of her passion for ecosystems and the wild through connecting with it on a deeper level, beyond sketches and notes, studies and field recordings. This connection has been called upon in recent times due to the extreme conditions of fires, floods and other threats to the natural landscape. Lawson thrives on appreciating these wild lands, on drawing our attention to the precious ecosystems that we are a part of. Most recently Lawson has been pushing her painting in a direction that channels the memories of place, the way the smells of bark and damp earth might catch a breeze and hit her while hiking or perhaps the crunching of leaf litter under foot following a drop from the trees above. The rough abrasion of finger tips passed over rock faces or the sounds of the stream carrying fresh water through the terrain. These paintings are intuitive, their marks varying in expressive energy and style, some more abstract than previous works but a continuation of the joy and passion that Lawson has for the wild. We see this joy in the palette, which also conveys how the artist feels about the regions she depicts. Colour used not in a representational sense but in an emotive response to the artist’s memory of the environments. Despite the push into abstraction, the series maintains the formal qualities of previous bodies of work through balanced compositional structure and a more subtle understanding of form and volume in the landscape. There are many pieces in this show that sit into their materiality, the oils and canvas, but where tree trunks or waterfalls take a back seat to colour as subject. Where previous series have been a direct response to particular areas of nature and wildlife this series renders how Lawson experiences bushland, how it seeps into her, how she holds it with her in memory and how she hopes people continue to appreciate it. The locations are not required in order to enter into these paintings, you only need to use your senses, to look at them, feel the emotions the artist taps into and recall all the times in nature that you have heard, felt, tasted, seen, or smelt something that has stayed with you and provided the structure for forming the memory of the place.
A particular stretch of national parkland along Jervis Bay on the New South Wales South Coast stays with me through the scent of charred bushland forced in through the open windows of the moving car. The bush ravaged but then refreshed, an unfortunate reminder of the dangers that impose themselves on our wonderful surroundings. I also recall the same smell on the air as burnt eucalyptus leaves landed in our front yard, blown in from the same fires. I find myself now grabbing onto the different olfactory experiences,: salt on the air at the coast, hay and cow pat of the paddocks, or the herbs and spices of markets abroad. I guess losing a sense of late has made me hyper aware of how we rely on the various senses working in conjunction in order for us to experience. Lawson observes a place through the smell of the wild flowers and grass, the plant life that makes up the place. The study goes beyond visually recording it and in many cases it is the non-visual cues that stay with Lawson.
The looking, the seeing the sketching and the marks that come from her sight are all carried out in a way to make the tracing of place almost muscle memory. An infusion of the gum trees, hills, and terrain in order to reach a trance like state of expressive mark making. Lawson describes it like a dance with colour, a meditation of place and the energy translated out from her hand. This type of confidence comes from spending the time looking very closely at the place. Seeing all the elements and how they are interconnected. The sights and sounds fuelling in the same way as scent, but in the case of sound, there is also an element of rhythm in the mark making. Lawson suggests it is channelled through music in the studio and it operates in the background in a similar way to the sounds of a place. I think of birds singing or even the croak of frogs or the pulsing chirp of crickets in the night heard through the fabric of the tent wall. Lawson takes all this stimuli and feeds it into her interpretation of a place, it fills her memory and it gives her wonder.
Painters develop a touch, a confidence that comes over time, but it comes and goes. The type or weight of brush, the weave and tension of canvas, or even the stiff shoulder or sore hand along with any other number of variables can throw a painter in or out of the zone. These paintings have shifted further into abstraction and have a confidence in them, I think about Lawson moving through terrain, striding with purpose, a trail she is familiar with. Hands stretched out to rub the bark of trees, catching the sticky sap between her fingers. Making her way down to the creek to rinse off and a splash of ice cold water on the face to awaken. There are so many surfaces and textures in nature, things that the finger tips feel and pass on to our brain to interpret and differentiate. I think Lawson mimics this in the variation of marks from washes, lightly glazed, scratchy and into more loaded and impasto. The surface of the canvas or timber board with their rhythmic marks express so many textures and tempt the touch.
Ochre Lawson has pushed into new territory with a series of works that underlines her passion for the wild. The emotive landscape is contemporary in that the genre continues to stress the artist’s connection to habitats that need to be protected. With all of the stresses and natural disaster of recent time, Lawson has used all of her senses in order to interpret her surroundings and build memories of the places she has visited. It is a fine line in this show between wild and free with balance and composition. The formalities of drawing and clear understanding of form and volume in landscape allow Lawson to move into a more abstract rendering. There is a softness and sensitivity within the work but they are also very bold and confident with their gestural sweeps. This series is less focussed on any specific place, and is concerned with ideas of how we relate to our landscapes, how they stay with us, and through careful consideration of them, how we are part of a greater system in natural order. The show is vibrant and brimming with colour, the room feels joyous and represents a deep connection to nature that has guided Lawson on many adventures. Up in trees, swimming in creeks, hiking in the rain, laying on sun warmed rock, exploring new terrain with all of her senses and continuing to build her wonder and awe for the endless beauty of the wild.
James Kerr, 2023
Sensory Wonder
Many people including myself have recently lost their sense of smell (hopefully temporarily). It is incredible how dependent we are on our senses and how they guide us along in daily life and how our experiences occur through them. Places have a way of staying with us, infusing their characteristics with our psyche through our senses. I often recall different regions visited on road trips or holidays, they come back through smells, touch, tastes, sounds, visions. These memories and associations bind with our personalities and help position us in the world. Ochre Lawson draws so much of her passion for ecosystems and the wild through connecting with it on a deeper level, beyond sketches and notes, studies and field recordings. This connection has been called upon in recent times due to the extreme conditions of fires, floods and other threats to the natural landscape. Lawson thrives on appreciating these wild lands, on drawing our attention to the precious ecosystems that we are a part of. Most recently Lawson has been pushing her painting in a direction that channels the memories of place, the way the smells of bark and damp earth might catch a breeze and hit her while hiking or perhaps the crunching of leaf litter under foot following a drop from the trees above. The rough abrasion of finger tips passed over rock faces or the sounds of the stream carrying fresh water through the terrain. These paintings are intuitive, their marks varying in expressive energy and style, some more abstract than previous works but a continuation of the joy and passion that Lawson has for the wild. We see this joy in the palette, which also conveys how the artist feels about the regions she depicts. Colour used not in a representational sense but in an emotive response to the artist’s memory of the environments. Despite the push into abstraction, the series maintains the formal qualities of previous bodies of work through balanced compositional structure and a more subtle understanding of form and volume in the landscape. There are many pieces in this show that sit into their materiality, the oils and canvas, but where tree trunks or waterfalls take a back seat to colour as subject. Where previous series have been a direct response to particular areas of nature and wildlife this series renders how Lawson experiences bushland, how it seeps into her, how she holds it with her in memory and how she hopes people continue to appreciate it. The locations are not required in order to enter into these paintings, you only need to use your senses, to look at them, feel the emotions the artist taps into and recall all the times in nature that you have heard, felt, tasted, seen, or smelt something that has stayed with you and provided the structure for forming the memory of the place.
A particular stretch of national parkland along Jervis Bay on the New South Wales South Coast stays with me through the scent of charred bushland forced in through the open windows of the moving car. The bush ravaged but then refreshed, an unfortunate reminder of the dangers that impose themselves on our wonderful surroundings. I also recall the same smell on the air as burnt eucalyptus leaves landed in our front yard, blown in from the same fires. I find myself now grabbing onto the different olfactory experiences,: salt on the air at the coast, hay and cow pat of the paddocks, or the herbs and spices of markets abroad. I guess losing a sense of late has made me hyper aware of how we rely on the various senses working in conjunction in order for us to experience. Lawson observes a place through the smell of the wild flowers and grass, the plant life that makes up the place. The study goes beyond visually recording it and in many cases it is the non-visual cues that stay with Lawson.
The looking, the seeing the sketching and the marks that come from her sight are all carried out in a way to make the tracing of place almost muscle memory. An infusion of the gum trees, hills, and terrain in order to reach a trance like state of expressive mark making. Lawson describes it like a dance with colour, a meditation of place and the energy translated out from her hand. This type of confidence comes from spending the time looking very closely at the place. Seeing all the elements and how they are interconnected. The sights and sounds fuelling in the same way as scent, but in the case of sound, there is also an element of rhythm in the mark making. Lawson suggests it is channelled through music in the studio and it operates in the background in a similar way to the sounds of a place. I think of birds singing or even the croak of frogs or the pulsing chirp of crickets in the night heard through the fabric of the tent wall. Lawson takes all this stimuli and feeds it into her interpretation of a place, it fills her memory and it gives her wonder.
Painters develop a touch, a confidence that comes over time, but it comes and goes. The type or weight of brush, the weave and tension of canvas, or even the stiff shoulder or sore hand along with any other number of variables can throw a painter in or out of the zone. These paintings have shifted further into abstraction and have a confidence in them, I think about Lawson moving through terrain, striding with purpose, a trail she is familiar with. Hands stretched out to rub the bark of trees, catching the sticky sap between her fingers. Making her way down to the creek to rinse off and a splash of ice cold water on the face to awaken. There are so many surfaces and textures in nature, things that the finger tips feel and pass on to our brain to interpret and differentiate. I think Lawson mimics this in the variation of marks from washes, lightly glazed, scratchy and into more loaded and impasto. The surface of the canvas or timber board with their rhythmic marks express so many textures and tempt the touch.
Ochre Lawson has pushed into new territory with a series of works that underlines her passion for the wild. The emotive landscape is contemporary in that the genre continues to stress the artist’s connection to habitats that need to be protected. With all of the stresses and natural disaster of recent time, Lawson has used all of her senses in order to interpret her surroundings and build memories of the places she has visited. It is a fine line in this show between wild and free with balance and composition. The formalities of drawing and clear understanding of form and volume in landscape allow Lawson to move into a more abstract rendering. There is a softness and sensitivity within the work but they are also very bold and confident with their gestural sweeps. This series is less focussed on any specific place, and is concerned with ideas of how we relate to our landscapes, how they stay with us, and through careful consideration of them, how we are part of a greater system in natural order. The show is vibrant and brimming with colour, the room feels joyous and represents a deep connection to nature that has guided Lawson on many adventures. Up in trees, swimming in creeks, hiking in the rain, laying on sun warmed rock, exploring new terrain with all of her senses and continuing to build her wonder and awe for the endless beauty of the wild.
James Kerr, 2023
