Reflecting women’s experiences through art

LOCAL flowers and botanicals are the focus of a new exhibition by Ballarat-based artist Susan Nethercote.

An Ornamental Education is on at Backspace Gallery until Sunday 14 April and the exhibition takes its name from the types of schooling upper and middle class women received in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

“They were allowed to practice very limited forms of art and one of them was flower painting,” Nethercote said. “The title of the exhibition refers to that time period where women were very limited in what they could paint.”

Nethercote used flowers and botanicals which are special to the Ballarat region, including begonias, in her works and many of them are based on botanical drawings found in the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s collection.

“I went in and explored their collection of early nineteenth century female botanical artists and that was sort of the springboard for the collection I created,” she said.

“I am very inspired by the gardens in Ballarat and every flower you see in the exhibition is either from my own garden or one I have encountered on my own wanders in Ballarat.”

The works in the exhibition are heavily influenced by nineteenth century writer and artist Louisa Anna Meredith.

Nethercote’s floral paintings are surrounded by Meredith’s poetry and a portrait of Meredith is also present in the works.

“I hope that people get a little bit of an introduction and understanding to what those early female botanical painters experienced and how they found a way to participate in the field of botany and art in the limited ways they could,” Nethercote said.

The works displayed in the exhibition are also available for purchase at susannethercote.com