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Helen McCullagh

Cosima Scales

In my sunroom are two sliding windows. The light that passes through them is bright and relatively even, becoming stronger in the afternoon as the sun hits the side of the neighbour's house. This is where I work, setting up arrangements of objects to paint from life. As I paint, sunlight pours in from the left to light the objects, which are weighted by small shadows.

 

I like to make still lifes using what is readily available, rummaging through cupboards and kitchen drawers for subject matter. Often, I will pick out a piece of fabric from a small collection that I've gathered, and use it to offset a colour, shape or pattern in a painting - dull pink stripes against a brighter pink gingham, or deep blue against crisp white paper.

 

In March, my habit of combing the house for material became more significant as self-isolation restricted my choices to the things at hand. I rediscovered a pair of woolly gloves, and a flowery brown dress snuck its way into a painting. 

 

For me, these paintings are about looking, considering colour, pattern and texture. They are also about time - both the weird, bendy time of the past few house-bound months and the brief time taken to complete each painting, bit by bit.

Cosima is interested in observational painting, making small scale works from life and with the aid of reference photographs. In 2018, she completed a Master of Visual Art by research at the Queensland Collage of Art with the aid of a postgraduate research scholarship. She has held recent solo exhibitions in Brisbane and Melbourne and is a previous studio resident at Outer Space ARI.

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Education

 

2018    Master of Visual Art, QCA

2015    Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours (First Class), QCA

2012    Bachelor of Fine Art, National Art School

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

2019    Bench Space, Wreckers Artspace, Brisbane

            Indoors, C3 Artspace, Melbourne

2018    Portals, Project Gallery, QCA Galleries, Brisbane

 

Group Exhibitions

 

2020    (forthcoming) Form Over Function, STABLE, Brisbane

2019    Outer Space Fundraiser, Outer Space ARI, Brisbane

            The Utopian Object, C3 Artspace, Melbourne

2018    Outer Space Art Auction Fundraiser, Outer Space, Brisbane

2017    Pieces, curated by Cut Thumb Laundry, Metro Arts, Brisbane

            Empathy Toward Plants, Project Gallery, QCA, Brisbane

2016    Interrupted Horizons, Rubicon ARI, Melbourne

            We are not Ourselves, Byron School of Art Project Space, Mullumbimby

2015    What’s Out There, The Laundry Artspace, Brisbane

 

Awards

 

2015    The St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital Art Prize

 

Residencies

 

2018    Outer Space ARI, Brisbane

2016    BigCi, Bilpin, NSW

2014    Listhús Artspace, Olafsfjordur, Iceland

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