Search

Rowena Martinich

"Chromatic intensity continues to pervade my work. Giant liquescent gestures sweep, marble and drag across the canvas surface as I build layers of paint on canvases that are laid across the studio floor. Colour is poured, swept, pushed, splattered and sprayed; and again, translucent washes are layered, worked into and rubbed out; paintings are stapled to the wall, analysed, removed, placed back on the floor…

 

This physical process of moving around the canvas is echoed in the painting itself. The reach of my arm, the odd smudge of my footstep, the twist and bump of my hand as it drags a loaded brush across an almost dry under-layer. Each brush stroke a deliberate and practiced movement.

 

Liquidity, gravity, duration, physicality, emersion are all manipulated and controlled to achieve these dynamic colourful works. The finished paintings crystallising and preserving the energy of their creation."

 

Rowena Martinich continues to push the boundaries within the public and private art sectors, transforming once ordinary spaces into luscious colour-scapes. In the studio she is driven by process. Her paintings are constantly shifting and evolving, building on each other to reflect a particular interest in the technical capacity of paint, each particular body of work displaying a curiosity in the application of fluid layers. Informed by years of painting experience Martinich works intuitively to create seemingly spontaneous and playful yet balanced compositions; rich in luminous colour and gesture. This studio practice directly informs Martinich’s work in the public realm – scale being the shifting factor. For her, moving beyond the private interior of the artist’s studio, to connect with others though her practice is where her work functions on its highest level. 

Artworks