Internal emotions expressed in exhibition

BIG, bold and beautiful are the words that inspire local artist Angela Morrissey.

Now the artist has her own expressionist paintings on display in The Capital foyer and said the exhibition is a few years in the making.

“I put together a whole heap of artwork I’ve done over the last couple of years that I thought would look good for an exhibition,” she said.

“When I was in VCE my year 12 studio arts teacher wanted us to create artwork that was big, bold, bright and beautiful, she didn’t want us to create little scratchy drawings in the corner.

“I followed that advice and I’ve created artworks that are big and bold.”

Morrissey’s Expressionist Daffodils I painting was selected for the Vision Australia 2021 Calendar, after it was supposed to be displayed in the cancelled 2020 Kyneton Daffodil and Arts Festival.

The artist said she likes painting native wildlife, such as emus and quokkas, but also enjoys bringing attention to more serious topics.

Her painting Soldier with PTSD Stares in Hope was selected in the top 20 at the Mental Health Foundation Consumer Arts Competition in 2017.

“A percentage of sales from those artworks go towards mental health,” Morrissey said.

“So, painting artworks for mental health and depicting issues to do with mental health, for example PTSD, means a lot to me as well.”

“I’m an expressionist artist and expressionism is based on internal emotions as opposed to external reality and you depict that through the use of colours, extortion, exaggeration and symbolism.

“Sure I paint pretty pictures like the daffodils, the emus and quokkas to make people happy, but I also have my serious and political paintings as well.”

The exhibition is on display until Thursday, 13 May.