SHEILA HOPE
A PORTRAIT OF AUSTRALIA
No part of the world owes more to the advent of the aeroplane than Australia. When man first grew wings, Australia was firmly established as a new powerful force in world affairs beyond her oceans; it linked State to State, revolutionised life in the Outback and made the survey of one of the harshest lands on Earth possible.
But getting even the faintest idea of the environment below from an aeroplane is difficult. The sun beats down remorselessly on the untamed land, raising the mid-summer temperatures to over 100F day after day.
From this perspective, Artist Sheila Hope draws inspiration for her wonderful images. As I interviewed her, the sprinkler played on the green lawn, and foxes picked at bread left for the birds. But our minds were 12000 miles away as we immersed ourselves in thoughts of the vast, ancient landscape that is Australia.
'I was just eight when I first went to Australia', Sheila told me. 'My Father was a civil engineer. Work in England during the 1950s was scarce - so we packed our bags and headed for a new life like so many others did then. I think Australia was quite a shock for my mother. We first lived in a north Melbourne suburb called Braybrook. The house was one of those awful prefabs you rarely see now; it was in the middle of nowhere. All I remember was the hot north winds blowing across the brown, barren landscape and the smell of the abattoir'.
Sheila's Grandmother provided the inspiration and nurtured the seed that would eventually bear fruit. Books full of beautiful illustrations would arrive carefully packaged from England. 'Unfortunately, I never saw her again, but it is to her I attribute my life as an artist'.
'My real exploration into art started when I gained a place at Camberwell Girls Grammar School; the school had a wonderful arts and crafts department. It was only a tin hut on the grounds, but that didn't matter; I just loved it.' After Camberwell, Sheila studied Interior Design at the Royal Melbourne Technical College.
Eventually, her Father's work forced the family to return to the UK. 'My time in Australia is important to me, but over the years, it receded into the further recesses of my mind. It was 1994 before I had the opportunity to visit again'.
'My trip was the most wonderful experience; it allowed my painting to evolve in a different direction. The light, the colours, they just switched me into another gear, a whole new palette'.
I asked what threw the switch? 'It was flying down from Port Headland in Western Australia to Perth. I glanced out of the window and couldn't believe my eyes. I pulled my sketchbook onto my lap and recorded all I could, but the landscape just went on forever.
When you examine the work Sheila produced after her trip, you begin to appreciate the scene that excited her imagination. The Australian Outback has been described as 'the back of the moon in Technicolor', but it is much more than that.
Having made the trip myself, the shape and colour of the empty scene fix themselves indelibly in your mind. The wrinkled rose-pink Earth below changes constantly as you move through the atmosphere - pink gives way to deep salmon, then ruby, pouring violet and indigo into chasms and canyons of erosion caused by the floods from cyclones, then burnt dry again by the fierce sun.
Australia is so vast it appears to have no boundaries; Sheila has recorded this in her work, evoking the true feeling of the remoteness of the land the relentless wrath of the sun. Then Nature added her 'delicious icing'. Her work has almost no edge; once your eye is drawn in, it cannot escape - and you do not want to.
Sheila describes her work as factual - with a bit of mystery thrown in. 'I'm going to produce some much bigger works; I can feel them growing in my imagination. I've been experimenting with acrylics and textured paper. I love the fluidity of the paints', she continued. 'I want to make paintings you can handle, pictures that aren't so precious you have to hide them under glass'.
Her landscapes of the vast Australian Outback take my breath away - and when Sheila begins her larger-scale paintings - I dare say I will need oxygen.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN 'T'TIMES ART SECTION'
© SIMON LAWRENCE
But getting even the faintest idea of the environment below from an aeroplane is difficult. The sun beats down remorselessly on the untamed land, raising the mid-summer temperatures to over 100F day after day.
From this perspective, Artist Sheila Hope draws inspiration for her wonderful images. As I interviewed her, the sprinkler played on the green lawn, and foxes picked at bread left for the birds. But our minds were 12000 miles away as we immersed ourselves in thoughts of the vast, ancient landscape that is Australia.
'I was just eight when I first went to Australia', Sheila told me. 'My Father was a civil engineer. Work in England during the 1950s was scarce - so we packed our bags and headed for a new life like so many others did then. I think Australia was quite a shock for my mother. We first lived in a north Melbourne suburb called Braybrook. The house was one of those awful prefabs you rarely see now; it was in the middle of nowhere. All I remember was the hot north winds blowing across the brown, barren landscape and the smell of the abattoir'.
Sheila's Grandmother provided the inspiration and nurtured the seed that would eventually bear fruit. Books full of beautiful illustrations would arrive carefully packaged from England. 'Unfortunately, I never saw her again, but it is to her I attribute my life as an artist'.
'My real exploration into art started when I gained a place at Camberwell Girls Grammar School; the school had a wonderful arts and crafts department. It was only a tin hut on the grounds, but that didn't matter; I just loved it.' After Camberwell, Sheila studied Interior Design at the Royal Melbourne Technical College.
Eventually, her Father's work forced the family to return to the UK. 'My time in Australia is important to me, but over the years, it receded into the further recesses of my mind. It was 1994 before I had the opportunity to visit again'.
'My trip was the most wonderful experience; it allowed my painting to evolve in a different direction. The light, the colours, they just switched me into another gear, a whole new palette'.
I asked what threw the switch? 'It was flying down from Port Headland in Western Australia to Perth. I glanced out of the window and couldn't believe my eyes. I pulled my sketchbook onto my lap and recorded all I could, but the landscape just went on forever.
When you examine the work Sheila produced after her trip, you begin to appreciate the scene that excited her imagination. The Australian Outback has been described as 'the back of the moon in Technicolor', but it is much more than that.
Having made the trip myself, the shape and colour of the empty scene fix themselves indelibly in your mind. The wrinkled rose-pink Earth below changes constantly as you move through the atmosphere - pink gives way to deep salmon, then ruby, pouring violet and indigo into chasms and canyons of erosion caused by the floods from cyclones, then burnt dry again by the fierce sun.
Australia is so vast it appears to have no boundaries; Sheila has recorded this in her work, evoking the true feeling of the remoteness of the land the relentless wrath of the sun. Then Nature added her 'delicious icing'. Her work has almost no edge; once your eye is drawn in, it cannot escape - and you do not want to.
Sheila describes her work as factual - with a bit of mystery thrown in. 'I'm going to produce some much bigger works; I can feel them growing in my imagination. I've been experimenting with acrylics and textured paper. I love the fluidity of the paints', she continued. 'I want to make paintings you can handle, pictures that aren't so precious you have to hide them under glass'.
Her landscapes of the vast Australian Outback take my breath away - and when Sheila begins her larger-scale paintings - I dare say I will need oxygen.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN 'T'TIMES ART SECTION'
© SIMON LAWRENCE
