Metro 5 Gallery past Tanya Hoddinott

With her newly found palette, Tanya Hoddinott has come of age. In these new works, gently meandering lines break up the picture surface; a modernist grid bewitched by a feminine aesthetic; a carefully tended garden of earthly delights and a travelogue of love, friendship and occasional drama.

To say that Hoddinott's paintings are intensely personal is an understatement. Scan these surfaces and you will find stories that touch upon experiences that range from the melancholy to the joyous. These works are almost road maps of a life led in full; whether it be relationships or literal journeys.

Hoddinott has, over the years, honed a highly distinctive language; hieroglyphs that allow the viewer an opportunity to confront their own experience via the mediation of another person's experience. This is one of the most powerful issues an artist can confront: to draw their viewer into his or her world via the paintbrush.

Indeed, in recent works, there are even words gently inscribed on the canvas, hints at a narrative that unfolds as the viewer traverses the painting. The use of wordage, especially within a painterly aesthetic, is a rarity in contemporary art, exemplified by another essentially gestural female artist, Jenny Watson. Hoddinott shares the fascination with the autobiographical that Watson has pursued, with both artists creating an almost diaristic and highly feminine record of experience and observation.

Where once Hoddinott's pictures were rendered in raw, almost basic colours - a harsh red to suggest distress, a cool blue to express calm - she has since honed her colours into a carefully hued palette. The artist explores colours, trying different combinations until she finds a blend that suits her unique sensibility.

Hoddinott's works, in the past, saw her subjects naively rendered; animals and humans, trapped in labyrinthine grids that critiqued modern life and the entrapment of all living forms under the strictures of Western civilisation. Her humans were trapped as much as the animals were fenced in. But in more recent work the fences have broken down; there is a new freedom at play here.

	home artists current upcoming contact us
TANYA HODDINOTT	August 13th - August 31st
	With her newly found palette, Tanya Hoddinott has come of age. In these new works, gently meandering lines break up the picture surface; a modernist grid bewitched by a feminine aesthetic; a carefully tended garden of earthly delights and a travelogue of love, friendship and occasional drama. To say that Hoddinott's paintings are intensely personal is an understatement. Scan these surfaces and you will find stories that touch upon experiences that range from the melancholy to the joyous. These works are almost road maps of a life led in full; whether it be relationships or literal journeys. Hoddinott has, over the years, honed a highly distinctive language; hieroglyphs that allow the viewer an opportunity to confront their own experience via the mediation of another person's experience. This is one of the most powerful issues an artist can confront: to draw their viewer into his or her world via the paintbrush.
	Indeed, in recent works, there are even words gently inscribed on the canvas, hints at a narrative that unfolds as the viewer traverses the painting. The use of wordage, especially within a painterly aesthetic, is a rarity in contemporary art, exemplified by another essentially gestural female artist, Jenny Watson. Hoddinott shares the fascination with the autobiographical that Watson has pursued, with both artists creating an almost diaristic and highly feminine record of experience and observation.
	Where once Hoddinott's pictures were rendered in raw, almost basic colours - a harsh red to suggest distress, a cool blue to express calm - she has since honed her colours into a carefully hued palette. The artist explores colours, trying different combinations until she finds a blend that suits her unique sensibility. Hoddinott's works, in the past, saw her subjects naively rendered; animals and humans, trapped in labyrinthine grids that critiqued modern life and the entrapment of all living forms under the strictures of Western civilisation. Her humans were trapped as much as the animals were fenced in. But in more recent work the fences have broken down; there is a new freedom at play here.
	Despite her subject matter, Hoddinott eschews the literal in her observations. However there are exceptions to the rule. Witnessing the artist paint in the Flinders Ranges last year it was obvious that Hoddinott responds directly to nature and the landscape. She is a plein air artist par excellence and her travels have had direct impact on the outcome of her works.
	Hoddinott recently visited Vietnam and Angkor Watt in Cambodia. She describes Vietnam as a highly 'feminine' country, which helped garner her confidence to explore the feminine side of her art practice. But the recent work has also been influenced by the curls and swirls of Oriental decoration and architecture. Travel is a major component here - Hoddinott takes on the world armed with diaries and notebooks, gluestick and pencil at the ready to create a palimpsest of impressions and notations. In her early career, she worked with montage and that background shines through in the fractured approach to the canvas, where memories and feelings are piled one upon another.
	This latest body of work is also significant for the artists self recognition as a woman. This confidence in the feminine is all important, an expression of maturity and confidence.
	There is also the ongoing love of - and fascination with - animals. Hoddinott sees in the different quirks of the animal kingdom, whether it be the adorable or the savage, reflections in the human race. "They may be stories about me and my neighbourhood," she says. "But they go beyond that, almost as though I am channelling the thoughts and feelings of others," - whether they be human or animal.
	Hoddinott has been strongly influenced in these works by the writings of Joseph Campbell, the author of The Masks of God, an exploration of archetypes in human mythology. She cites Campbell's notation of the snake being representative of evil in myriad cultures, most especially the Christian. However, as Campbell points out, in earlier cultures the snake was representative of new life. In Christian culture new life, it seems, was to be feared.
	"Campbell points out that contemporary life moves so quickly there is no time for new myths," Hoddinott says. "I love that as a challenge - the fact that still, in this day and age, you can make new myths."
	At times there may be anger and bitterness in these paintings, but there is also joy and love. There are moral stories within, but there is also a lot of fun on the long journey that Hoddinott's paintings explore. Ashley Crawford, Melbourne, 2003