Director’s award for emerging creative

LINTON artist Jennifer Cromarty is overwhelmed at the response she’s received for her first major creative submission.

After years of dabbling with drawing, painting, and art classes, her first foray into the exhibiting world has paid dividends with her piece in Sequel Gallery’s Ephemeral show honoured with the Director’s Award.

Cromarty received the nod earlier this month at the Geelong-based exhibition’s launch.

“I’ve drawn as a hobby pretty much for the last 30 years and did art in high school but life gets in the way and I couldn’t pursue it professionally,” she said. “This year I decided I’d try and focus a bit more on my practice. The Ephemeral exhibition was the first time I put together a piece specifically to enter it.

“It’s overwhelming in the sense I’m just at the very beginning of thinking about what role art might take in my life.”

Cromarty’s piece, We Dream to Wake Up is an oil pastel work created on canvas board, the subject of which she based on a free reference image from the Judith Yaws Portrait Challenge Instagram page.

Developing the piece further while attending a Goldbrush Painters creative session, she said the work took about eight hours to create.

“The original image was this beautiful light-filled picture of a woman who looks like she’s sleeping or reclining,” Cromarty said.

“I interpreted the exhibition’s theme of ephemeral as something not quite of this world and quite dreamlike. I was talking with Goldbrush Painters about different effects I could use.

“We tried to create a bit of a misty effect with oil and then I added wings. It’s sort of exploring what are the sorts of things people experience when they’re sleeping but also the importance of other states.”

Cromarty’s Director’s Award win will see her host a solo exhibition at Sequel Gallery from 28 November to 21 December, which she said may explore a folkloric or mythological theme.