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jenni mitchell
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Jenni Mitchell is best known as a painter of the Polar Ice regions, the Australian landscape and of Australian poet's portraits. She has travelled extensively throughout the inland regions of Australia, particularly the Flinders Ranges, Lake Eyre and Tibooburra. The dry interior of this country has been a great source of inspiration to her work. In contrast is the work she has done along the eastern and south coasts of Australia, Port Campbell National Park in particular with its wild coastlines and frenzied seas. Jenni's vision of the horizon line both with the desert and the sea have similarities.
The Wimmera and the Mallee region of Victoria have been visited frequently, with interests in the Little Desert, Mt. Arapiles and again the flat horizon line and the shimmering wheat fields and silos.
She has completed a series of 100 Australian poets' portraits painted from life as well as a number of photographic portraits of the poets. Among the poets in the collection are: A.D. Hope, Judith Wright, Les Murray, Tom Shapcott, Gwen Harwood, Emma Lew, John Anderson, Cornelis Vleeskens, Gig Ryan, Ken Taylor and Jordie Albiston.
As a recipient of an Australian Antarctic Division fellowship Jenni sailed to Casey Station aboard the MV Polar Bird as the artist-in-residence round-tripper. This voyage along with a previous Antarctic fly-over has led to a major exhibition of paintings and her first publication of paintings and photography - To The Ice: Images from the Antarctic.
Recently, Jenni has returned from a voyage to the High Arctic working as artist-in-residence aboard the 'Kapitan Klebnikov', a Russian ice-breaker.
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Statement:
Most of my painting is completed on location. I search for the extra-ordinary in subject material. It maybe a landscape or a portrait of a person I find interesting, or would like to understand. Much of my work is painted in the arid inland regions of Australia such as the Northern Flinders Ranges, Lake Eyre in South Australia. I look for the excitement of intense light, mood and the dramatic sculptural land forms in the landscape. It may appear as a hard horizon line broken by distant vegetation ,a craggy rugged granite outcrop or in the detail of a stony gibber plain, a crisp salt pan or a foggy night. In contrast the melancholic beauty of a landscape reflected in a black waterhole, mist rising from the stillness of an early morning tidal river, or a pond with an unbroken surface.
And then there is the Antarctic. To travel to the Antarctic on a working cargo ship is a painting trip of a lifetime. The images I have brought back in photography and painting were barely enough to capture the merest glimpse of this awesome place. I have much more work to do before I feel I have come anywhere near to understanding the experience.
Jenni has held numerous exhibitions throughout Australia, and has been included in many group exhibitions. Her works are represented in public and private collections in Australia, and overseas, including USA, UK. and Japan.
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