Local artist profile: Alicia Thomas

THIS week we chat with multi-medium artist Alicia Thomas.

 

What initially motivated you to become an artist?

I don’t know that I’ve ever not been an artist. Wanting to draw and express visually the world around me is something that has been with me forever, from before I could have articulated it. Creating visual art seems to be tied up with immersing myself in an experience ranging from interactions with the natural world to expressing something occurring on an emotional level.

 

How would you describe your style and how did you develop it?

I can’t choose a single favourite medium but instead feel that I have a toolbox from which to choose when I want to express something. That might be something symbolic using printmaking, something immersive using oil paints or sitting drawing carefully an expression of emotion. My art is generally figurative, symbolic, detailed and considered. There is no fast execution.

 

Which other artists inspire you and why?

I love the work of a huge variety of artists from history and in our contemporary culture but the word inspire is more emotive for me. The artists that inspire are particularly my fellow artists whom I’ve watched make a career in art while simultaneously facing similar challenges as I in looking after family and other paid work, and yet still pumping out work that they are passionate about and expert in.

Watching these artists as their practice evolves and grows is truly inspiring and include local artists and teachers, Ray Pearce, Stan Farley, Janet Goodchild-Cuffley, Catherine Pilgrim, David Frazer, Chrisanne Blennerhasset and Sarah Gabriel to name a few. It is not just the work that they produce that is inspiring but that they have the will and determination to produce it, sometimes in spite of the lack of support in our culture for creatives.

 

How has your practice been affected by COVID?

COVID emerged just as my mother was dying and my father beginning to deteriorate. My father going into care, my mother’s death and living in lockdown meant that I suddenly had time to sit and relish my grief and the time to express it through producing art.

During that period I joined the artists in residence at Valentine’s Antique Gallery where we existed through the lockdowns which made establishing our studios as somewhere that people could meet practicing local artists and buy quality work particularly difficult.

Looking back, it feels that living through that period saw me produce a much greater quantity of work while simultaneously cultivating new friendships and support networks. I feel that despite all the tragedies of that period, something good emerged from the pandemic.

 

How can people check out your work?

My work can be viewed as part of the Artists in Residence at Valentine’s Antique Gallery at 18 View Street Bendigo, right in the middle of Bendigo’s thriving arts precinct where we are open six days a week, Tuesday to Saturday from 10 to 5 and on Sundays from 11 to 4. An overview can also be found via my website, Sandhurst Art Studio, via Instagram @ajtinst and my facebook page Sandhurst Art Studio.

 

What would you say to young regional aspiring artists thinking of making a go of it?

I would say absolutely give it a crack. Our time here is finite, and we need to do what matters to us.