Joanna Logue has lived for over 20 years at Essington Park, a property just outside of Oberon, NSW. Past the 150-year-old home, past the one-room schoolhouse, you glance over to a solitary grave of a child who died in 1863. Down the hill a little – before you reach the donkeys, the chickens and the paddocks stand the conifer and fir trees that are a testament to the beauty of the western plains. Set amongst this partially artificial landscape, sculpted by the hands of generations of farmers and the sheer will of nature is Joanna’s studio. In this converted horse stable with large blank white walls and natural light the painting begins.
Joanna is a keenly observant and intellectual painter – stealing the inspiration and beauty offered up to her by the changing seasons; the play of light and shadow upon the landscape; the unpredictable effects of the weather and her photographic memory of minute variations over time. It is not the artist’s intent to copy or replicate what she sees – but rather to use these observations as her ‘muse;’ and translate them into a unique language and image that speaks singularly to each and every viewer. By literally attacking the canvas with layering then scraping back, again and again, Joanna reinvigorates her paintings and shows us what we were unable to see ourselves.
King Street Gallery on William, 2010
