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Carla McRae / Full Sun

Carla McRaeFull Sun

Full Sun is a reflection on a summer spent in Iceland. Co-existing with lava fields, waterfalls, volcanoes, glaciers and craters; shrunken down and humbled by powerful, epic versions of nature. A hyper-awareness of these forces in a land of extreme contrasts. An ever-present sun crawls across the sky, never sinking below the horizon and glowing clusters of colourful rooftops. Time moves slowly sleeping under mountains beneath a midnight sun, with a calmness and melting in the chest. Using a muted primary and pastel colour palette, the pigment marker drawings evoke the forms of nature. Depicting figurative and semi-abstracted scenes, reduced to vignettes of simple line-work and geometry. These pieces are set alongside a series of wood cut reliefs, using distilled, full opaque blocks of colour to create quiet, tranquil forms. A mural and self published risograph zine accompany these core pieces to create a wholly calming and encompassing space for the viewer to immerse themselves in.”

 

Carla McRae is a Melbourne-based artist and illustrator. Growing up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, she spent her childhood hunching over a sketchbook, obsessing over cartoons and culture. Not too much has changed since. Carla’s drawings pull together a blank space with crisp lines, geometric shapes, strong colour and characters. Wielding a pencil, marker or paint brush at any time, her background in design has informed her preference for clean, simplistic image-making. Her work depicts small, open narratives and stories about characters and their worlds. Her characters are strong, independent and busy exploring the spaces they occupy, or enjoying the beauty of small gestures and quieter moments. When she’s not working on freelance projects, Carla exhibits her work, self-publishes and loves a nice warm day painting a big wall in the sun.

 

Carla is also running a painting workshop to coincide with the exhibition. Click here for details.

Full sun runs from March 30 – April 22. To see a full exhibition listing click here.