Adrift with Carmen Griffen
Photography, Art, Place and Family are key factors in my art journey. My artworks often play with water themes and connections with nature. My studio is in the small regional town of Margaret River in the South West of WA.
My artworks are usually painted on canvas, and sometimes beautiful archival paper. Often the exploration of texture can be evident with both pallet marks and brushstrokes becoming heroes on the surface. Colour is a constant exploration, some artworks are bold with colour, and others set a reflective soft mood, usually the subject and composition reflect the choice of colour and texture combinations.
Then, just because Art is all around us in every aspect of our lives, family, stories and photo albums, have a large fascination for many of us, it also manages to creep into my artworks. Recently being obvious in the Outback Girl images. These explore how we arrive and depart into place along a family journey.
I am feeling privileged to have recently participated in an exhibition at the Painted Tree Gallery in Northcliffe. The brief was to create artworks inspired by women. I chose to do an installation using a hills hoist washing line. At first, I had no idea what to place on the line. I started exploring vintage paper patterns and made some paper clothing. I layered stories, using both sketches, written word and mixed media to make 3 items of clothing to help me discover "Stories of Ourselves under the Washing Line"
After the unexpected passing of my beautiful husband, "The Carpenter" I have had to re-evaluate my life, being alone rather than a team and couple. My husbands little workshop had originally been built with his hope that I would someday use it as an art space. I am gradually setting up my new artspace in the workshop. My journey is feeling unfamiliar, I am finding space for all the changes I am experiencing. Enquiries via my facebook direct message or via email
