Janene Harman
My continued exploration of landscape. What I view from the vantage point and reinterpret through contemporary and abstracted pieces, small images of the larger view. Connecting them together to form a new distance and outlook.
Outlook, acrylic on cotton paper, 93 x 39 cm
SAA: How would you describe your Arts Practice?
JH: The process of making these works is one that happens over a number of months or years. I paint a completed landscape as a whole and then put it away for some time and then cut up the painting and spend a lot of time rearranging the individual pieces….then put it away again for many weeks/months/years and then repeat the process of rearranging and discarding, often multiple times. I then might work over the images adding pencil, pen, stitching or sticks until I finally glue the pieces down to create a new landscape and vision of what I see.
SAA: Have you done any study? related to art or not?
JH: I have completed a degree in visual arts at CSU in which I majored in sculpture and painting. I also have Post graduate Diploma and certificate in Education and in Online learning.
SAA: What do you find most inspiring about your art space?
JH: Currently my art space is my dining room table or wherever I am painting and set up as a studio. I am inspired by what I see around me, when I’m bushwalking, or places I have travelled through and what I see in my head as a result of those. I often paint or draw when I visit places, such as my sisters farm and those locations become my studio. I also have a large collection of stones and natural objects that inspire me, especially in my sculpture.
SAA: What does a studio day in your life look like?
JH: Unfortunately, I don’t have set studio days as such, I squeeze studio time into my life. I take blocks/weeks of time to paint pictures and then do the deconstruction and construction process at night or on weekends.
SAA: How have you grown as an artist since starting out?
JH: Exploring new mediums and materials and being more experimental in my practice and using those materials in new ways. Being more critical and aware of my analysis of what I do, the decisions I make within the works as I deconstruct and construct them. Learning to be confident in my style and what I do.
Summer Dance (detail), acrylic on cotton paper, 113 x 63 cm
SAA: What gets you up in the morning and drives you to be a working artist?
JH: That inner need I have to create and express the things that I see or that are in my head, problem solving the challenges that I set when I want to create something. It’s just something I have to do!
SAA: How did you stay focussed and original when starting out?
JH: By being persistent in what I do and open to peoples feedback and ideas and seeking to develop and grow in my practice and explore my materials and ideas in new directions. Push the boundaries with what I do.
SAA: What are the biggest challenges facing working artists and how do you overcome them?
JH: My biggest challenge would be time limitations, never enough time to work how I would like to. Working full time to make money to allow me to do my art also affects the time I can have to do art. To overcome this I work within the time after work or on weekends, annual leave that I have available. I have to carve out and make time whenever I can.
SAA: What do you read, watch, listen to, do to stay inspired?
JH: Walking and exploring in nature. I am an avid collector of sticks, stones and interesting objects I find in nature. I love visiting beautiful natural places, especially in the mountains. Journeying and exploring places. Visual media, such as in design and architecture magazines, visiting galleries.
SAA: Do you have any advice for young artists?
JH: Keep exploring your ideas and learning and developing as an artist. Overcome the obstacles and don’t give up.