ARTIST MICHELLE BRETON
CONTEMPORARY PAINTINGS
There
can be no present without a past. The past has a place in my work, it engages
me and gives me a sense of the future, I want to acknowledge it in order to
seek out my place in the present. Painting for me is similar to an archaeological
excavation, but in reverse: rather than digging to discover the past, I am
building layers to reveal it.
When
I first started painting with my teacher Kerry Johns, I was extremely moved by
the process. I had no idea what I was attempting to do, but my connection to
the paint and the surface (be it canvas, paper or board) provided me with the
freedom to express myself. It was a liberating experience, reminding me of
dancing, which played a big part in my childhood in Adelaide. There is a
similarity for me between dance and painting, they are both forms of expression
without the use of words or voice. But what is expressed can be heard just as
loudly as any spoken word.
Working
in the Blue Mountains was a wonderful beginning, painting still lifes and
landscapes in a superb setting. But I wanted more, abstract was calling me. I
needed to paint from another source than what I was seeing, and after
completing my degree at RMIT in Fine Arts and Majoring in Painting I was on the
path of abstraction. In 2006 I had my first solo show in Melbourne. In 2008 I
lived and painted in Berlin and Italy.
It's
now 2011 and I have returned to Melbourne from the Blue Mountains again
where I have a new studio on a different side of town.
