Team:UNSW Australia/Exhibition/Petra Meikle de Vlas
About
Betty Sykes
Erub Arts Collaboration
Erub Ladies Collaboration
James Unsworth
Josie Olbar
Kris Casey
Kurun Warun
Petra Meikle de Vlas
Pormpuraaw Art Centre
Wayne Quilliam
Giveaway
Petra Meikle de Vlas
"I recreate coral and ocean scenes because I'm very passionate and deeply moved by the beauty of them, but they also provide my protection.
The Great barrier reef is less than 15 nautical miles from the coastal village where I live.
The reef systems there act as a key barrier to guard against incoming storms and mitigate the damage done by
surging waters, like in the event of a cyclone, in which we have many formed each wet season. Losing these coral
reefs due to the rise of sea temperatures is a devastating thought."
Based in Cairns Australia, Petra creates highly textured, mixed media works inspired by the turquoise waters of the great barrier reef.
Self-taught, she rarely follows conventional art methods and has developed a technique of her own. In addition to paint brushes, she uses her hands, air guns, blow torch, force and gravity.
The texture is the reef, rocks or land mass, the liquid paint is the water, spray bottles are used for the force of nature like rain, hairdryer is the wind, blowtorch is the sun, and gravity (tilting the board this way and that) is the tide.
Self-taught, she rarely follows conventional art methods and has developed a technique of her own. In addition to paint brushes, she uses her hands, air guns, blow torch, force and gravity.
The texture is the reef, rocks or land mass, the liquid paint is the water, spray bottles are used for the force of nature like rain, hairdryer is the wind, blowtorch is the sun, and gravity (tilting the board this way and that) is the tide.
Typically working in large formats, the artist “sculpts” her paintings, starting with a board upon which she layers
various materials. Her work represents the results of mixing media, with chemistry between pigments creating dynamic
compositions as they attract and repel, all the while being manipulated into ocean and coral reef like formations.
