ANNETTE LODGE 

CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVE PAINTINGS

A new exhibition of work based on a recent trip through Morocco, Southern France and Spain.

The work is a reflection of my reactions and  my observations as a stranger in the different cultures I travelled through and records each day of my trip. There are 27 pieces of work, one for each day I was away from home. It is not a travelogue, but rather the visual diary of a traveller, scratching beneath the surface of appearances. I am most interested in the extreme diversity of humans through our simultaneous conditioning to culture, environment    and the randomness of where we find ourselves:  in danger, lucky, safe, vulnerable, detached. It is not a philosophical narrative, but rather an attempt to experience a bigger world and the marvelous  wonder that goes beyond the four walls of home.

Through a series of symbols, metaphors and words, it is essentially an exhibition about the stories of others.  Annette Lodge 2011

BACKGROUND

Nettie Lodge was born in Nowra, NSW, Australia. Her family moved to Perth WA in 1969 where she finished high school and obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art at John Curtain University.

In 1980, she was accepted into a Post Graduate programme at the Banff Centre of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada for which she was awarded an Overseas Study Grant from the West Australian Arts Council.

Travelling has always been a potent source of inspiration to her work and she has held numerous solo exhibitions based on various and mysterious parts of the world she has visited. Her work is represented in public and private collections around the world. She currently works in Sydney as a freelance illustrator and a part time lecturer at the Billy Blue College of Design.
She exhibits regularly at the Soho Galleries in Sydney where she has held numerous solo shows since 1995.

She is an author and illustrator of children’s books.
In 2005, her childrenʼs picture book BIRD, published by ABC Books won a NOTABLE BOOK MERIT at the Childrenʼs Book Council of Australia Awards. Her most recent book NATEMBA, published by ABC Books is based on the plight of orphaned animals in Africa, for which she researched as a volunteer at a Vervet Monkey sanctuary in South Africa.

She is presently working on a new graphic/ picture book based on THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. She lives and paints in her studio on Scotland Island in Pittwater.