ARTIST BIO

Artist Statement

Since graduating from RMIT in 1978 I have continued to paint and exhibit my work. A consistent theme has been the Landscape which never ceases to provide me with a rich source of imagery, suggesting colours patterns and forms and moods. I am never really sure what direction a painting will take as I tend to work fairly intuitively and in the process of painting they take on their own life. My general aim is to reduce a landscape to its’ basic elements….i.e. trees can become just points of colour or marks of paint moving across a uniform plain, clouds may seem like a smudge, a winding track or dry creek bed becomes a gesture suggesting movement. I aim to apply the paint with an energy which I hope brings the surface to life.

SIAN DODD

 1955 Born Wales UK

 1962 Arrived Oz

 1978 Graduated RMIT (BA Fine Art – Painting)

 1979-84 Rosslyn St Studio years. Member of a shared inner city studio space established by a group of fellow RMIT graduates where we pursued our creative endeavours in the spirit of art for Arts sake.

Mid 80's-2015 Continued to paint and exhibit regularly.

Artist Statement:

Although my style has ranged broadly from an earlier abstract expressionist approach, followed by a gestural en plein air period, to my current reductionist approach, the Landscape has provided a constant source of inspiration. I use the landscape as a 'way in' to a painting. Natural elements within the landscape become daubs of paint or scribbles of pastel and I find act of 'making marks' on canvas or paper an endlessly satisfying experience. My goal is to distil an essence and energy in each work, which hopefully takes on it's own life in the process of being made.

Exhibitions/Awards/Art Projects:

2015 Warranwood Art Show; Best Landscape (judge Kendra Morgan, snr curator Heide Museum Modern Art)

2014 Art Red Hill co-winner Best in Show (judge, artist Mark Schaller ex Roar Studios)

2006-2008 Develop a collection of 30 artworks: Images of our Land, showroom Natural Selection. Contemporary Australian landscapes to compliment furniture handcrafted from beautiful Australian timbers.

2007-2010 Art Melbourne

2005 Jimmy Possum Award (outstanding contemporary composition) Bendigo

2003 Best Oil (Flinders Art Exhibition)

2000 Fleurieu Biennale SA Fleurieu Vistas prize exhibitor

Camberwell Rotary – Best small Work

1999 Group Exhibition Fitzroy Gallery

1998 Work acquired Caulfield Grammar (Nanjing campus)

Mildura Art Festival – Best work on paper

Melbourne High – Best Oil/Acrylic

1990 Handmark Gallery Hobart - Solo exhibition

1988 'Push' Linden Gallery St Kilda – 5 Women Artists/Mothers

1986 Penleigh Grammar Drawing Prize winner

Group Exhibition Strickland Gallery Hobart

1984 Selected exhibitor – The Dobel Prize – AGNSW and Ray Hughes Gallery

1978 'Tribute to George Baldessin' - group exhibition Realities Gallery Melb

Collections:

Essendon Grammar

Eltham College

Swinburne College Art Design

Shire of Seymour

RMIT Dept Building and Surveying

Caulfield Grammar (Nanjing)