"Over the last 18 months I’ve had the opportunity to consider the nature of the artist’s studio both from my own changing situation, the fact that I have inhabited 4 different studios throughout this time and from the perspective of other artists who I have connected with on Instagram. This body of work explores my interest in the life of the artist and the studio as an active emotional and psychological space. Beginning with the decorative and practical objects that other artists shared with me from their own studios, this posed questions such as the following: How can I use paint to describe the emotional state of the artist? How do I describe the push/pull sensation of artistic life?

As a starting point, each painting began with a loose description of an object or group of objects found in a studio. I’ve then added layers of oil paint and in some of the work, heavy directional marks to talk about the changing pace and the uncertainty often felt in the studio. Over the last 12 months I’ve had conversations with other artists about opposing feelings that are a part of artistic life such as elation and insecurity. This dichotomy is represented by various elements in the paintings including the use of night and day (“Studio at Night” works) and also inside and outside (“Haven” which is suggestive of the garden that surrounds my own studio). Expressive marks have in some works concealed the initial objects to a point they are barely recognisable, an intentional act to communicate a sense of overwhelm or intense feeling. Fleeting ideas and imaginative thought are represented by marks floating in the space of the canvas as depicted in the painting “Studio at Night – Panther”. Across all works not much is anchored alluding to the often-unstable nature of an artist’s life."

Amber Stokie is an Adelaide-based visual artist known for her figurative works on paper and canvas. Stokie holds a BA in Visual Art (drawing) from the University of Ballarat and recently completed a Master of Fine Art degree with Distinction at RMIT University, Melbourne. Stokie often shifts between drawing and painting to describe what’s going on in her world, and society. Emotive responses are the catalyst to transform scenes/ environments to imaginative and deeply psychological landscapes. This process results in colourful and often ambiguous works that oscillate between gestural abstraction and figuration.