About Brigid Noone

Words for painting

by Brigid Noone

A strong influence in my own work is a notion of attempting to make sense of my internal and external world, including such themes as, vulnerability, awkwardness, desire, love and home. These have comprised some of the dominant areas of interest in my work, with undertones of political and broader social reach. At this stage in my research the two central concepts that are appearing are vulnerability and intimacy.

There is a vulnerability in asking questions, to be in life without all the arrivals or outcomes? There is an important aspect of not explaining everything away.

All present and accountant for the paintings gathered. Did you know that we are research now? Your colours are so particular and have an emotional quality so fine; we just arent sure which chapter will suit. Instinct is a tricky methodology, especially when you body is so connecting in the making. Leaky art work can appear messy; watch those drips they can lead to an unravelling of all those threads that have been weaving so long.

A joy that was so overwhelming it was almost like pain, in the life and the death, in the beginning and in the making. I shall paint my voice and write my movements. To catch a glimpse of being known, a spoken letter once dreamt in love now spoken with an intention of love beyond romance. A desire to be known in the being rather than the production of self through other, and their view and experience of self, always being a desired other. What is it that you think people want from you? he asked a certain presence, I said. Painting as a story that moves, the lines, the colour, the sound of sighs made in all the let go of the making in the archiving of self.

Self imposed restrictions are fear based, dull quiet what if nothing happens, I sleep forever and I miss out kind of worry. Get up with the birds, bend and move with the flow and trust that truly all is as it should be, even the slow funny, annoying times, the awkward gaps of all the unmet desires that fall through the cracks painting and love, they love each other.

Grace

Written by Sera Waters

Brigid Noones paintings have continually reflected an intrigue with people as subject matter and, in many ways, her paintings could be considered a modern-day version of traditional portraiture. Unlike portraits from a pre-photography era, her human subjects have neither commissioned nor sat for their portraits, but have arisen from personal photographs or from the mass of reproductions that contemporary media consists. Noone draws out particular men, women and children for her painted community that, with a little help from her brush and palette, share a quality; Grace.

Like all good and sought after qualities, grace is elusive and impossible to pinpoint. In art history, Romantic artists have perhaps most aptly expressed grace, and Noone, as self-confessed Post-romanticist, continues to recognise the relevance of the non-rational as well as the strength and composure of the individual. Without a hint of moral righteousness nor denial of the trials of everyday life, Noones paintings offer emotional-driven expressions of conviction, positiveness and a sense of making the best of things

The emotional key to Noones portraits lies within her colour choice. Two colours, a lovely dusty pink and a 50s green, radiate from her canvases of varying sizes. These two colours, and their derivatives, seem to have arrived from memories of local bathrooms that havent been renovated since mid last century, or of childhood lollies before they became garishly intense. Noones subjects are not placed completely in front of these colours, but instead their outlines seem to emerge from within. Usually her individuals faces tend to have more definition, opacity and depth and thus suggest this is where their individuality, strength and grace manifest themselves.

Many streams of thought flow between the paintings of this exhibition, but perhaps the most fascinating is the reappearance of sailing ships and tattoos in the absence of sailors. A ship sets sail from a womans head, one sails over the crook of a mans bare back, tattoos dedicated to various lovers or loved ones are inscribed upon women and childrens arms. This imagery metaphorically refers to concurrent ideas of the ephemeral against permanence or sailing away (into the sunset) juxtaposed with anchorage. References to sailing soon also lead to ideas of adventure and discovery, and in particular, to Australias colonial past which is ridden with dark ambiguousness and nostalgia simultaneously. Amongst the canvases, some portraits are contained by painterly renditions of ornate frames, others with meaning-laden iconography that could lead us in every direction possible, but they dont. Noone, while encompassing so many references to life past and present, brings her subjects together into her painting world.

While the paintings of this exhibition are somewhat alternative versions of the portrait, in Grace Noone follows some critical portraiture conventions that are still understood to this day. The contemporary viewing audience is savvy when it comes to interpreting portraiture and Noone uses this understanding to her advantage. For example, we have come to know that a portrait of any individual is simultaneously a self-portrait of the artist and it is a reflection of the time and culture in which it is made. So though Noones subjects appear as a variety of individuals, as a collective they become a self-portrait of Noone, of our current Australian/global culture and, most importantly, of Grace.

Artist's CV (Word doc, 40kb)

Artist's website

'Birthmark

'Portraits kept company'

'Pink Girl'

'Orig crush pretty'

'My song'

'My love'

'Miss'

'Lost friend'

'His grace'

'Her waiting'

'Breathe'

'Grace'

'Crush me, tree'

'Her dream boys'