Carved prints share local landscapes’ beauty

PRINTMAKER Marie Mason discovered her artistic talent at age twenty-two.

“I was having a holiday with my aunty and we went out with a little country art group she was in. She gave me a squeeze of oil paint out of her tube and some board to keep me out of mischief,” she said.

“I thought, ‘blow me down.’ My painting looked just like what I was looking at. I was able to see something and put it down straight away.

“To realise I could do that…was a gift from god. It gave me confidence.”

Later discovering the lino prints of Margaret Preston, Mason “fell in love” with her works, and consequently, the medium.

Now a former art teacher of 40 years, Mason develops landscape lino prints five days a week, whether experimenting with collage, transferring a sketch onto a plate, carving, inking, or rolling her brand-new printing press, with help from her loving husband, Alan.

Enjoying time in her purpose-built Smythes Creek studio – the first art space she’s ever had to herself – she simply adores the tactile process and end result.

“I love the final product and making beautiful pictures. That’s my aim. There’s a lot of satisfaction in the planning, designing, and getting the confidence along to way to know my vision is as good as anybody’s,” she said.

“My prints are either plain black and white, or reduction. I only ever buy red, yellow, blue, black and white ink, and mix my own colours.

“I do anything I can to get the image onto the page, and I don’t wait, I just start. I learnt from John Olsen that if you want to succeed at art, you have to do it every day, even if it’s only for 10 minutes.”

A daughter of farmers, Mason has always gathered inspiration from landscapes and the places she’s lived.

Ideas may come from the neighbours’ sheep, her front dam, cypress trees on Bells Road, or a setting sun’s last orange flare, but every work is further inspired by her “faith in god.”

A member of Goldfields Printmakers, Mason will have two shows in 2021. One with Smythesdale printmaker, Anne Langdon at Gallery on Sturt, and a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.