MARILYN AUSTIN

Marilyn is an artist with a passion for rich warm colours, texture and works with strong visual impact. She is known for her abstract cityscapes, landscapes and textural forms. The works are visually exciting and contain areas of heavy impasto with some smooth surfaces to create a three dimensional effect. Metallic paints are often woven within the work producing a scintillating glow and mixed media is sometimes used to give added surface interest. The texture is mainly produced however, by a unique layering method with many applications of paint so that the underlying colours shine through. Acrylic paints are mainly used because of the drying time required. This method gives Marilyn’s works the recognisable quality which has become her signature.

Following a lifelong love of art which included High School and Art School studies, Marilyn has been painting from her home studio for the last ten years. With her three children now independent she is able to follow fulltime her passion for creating artworks. During the 1990’s Marilyn completed a three year course in Art Theory, Practise and History and this has played an important role in the development of her own practise. During 2006 – 2007 she studied Life Drawing at Canterbury University specialising in the Nude figure and using charcoals on paper which are later transferred to canvas and painted in the studio.

Some inspiration for her subjects comes from memories and images of places which she has travelled to over the years. Although some are specific places, many works are impressions of the spectacular skylines and cities which she has seen and the sunsets and vistas of distant shores which are forever captured in the memory. Also often used for inspiration are the beautiful landforms of Aotearoa- New Zealand; the rugged landscape of the South Island; the plains of Canterbury, and the coastlines and mountain ranges of our lovely country. Marilyn always travels with sketchbook and camera handy hoping to capture that precious moment forever.

With the more abstract pieces where the subject may be less defined, Marilyn has attempted to capture the essence or the mood so that there is an emotional response to the painting and the very tactile nature of the work encourages the viewer to reach out and explore this texture.

Marilyn’s work is exhibited widely and can be seen in collections throughout New Zealand and has gone overseas into collections in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Europe.

Locally Marilyn is a working member of the Centre of Contemporary Art Christchurch, the Ashburton Art Society and the Selwyn Art Society.

These words by Marilyn reflect her feelings towards her practise;

“I believe a work must speak from the heart and uplift the viewer making them want to return to look again.... to see something new and inviting. If I can achieve this then I fell I have succeeded.”
CRIMSON SUNSET AOTEAROA
By Marilyn Austin
$1100
Dimensions: 760mm x 1012mm
Media: Acrylic On Canvas 

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