Clare Cowley

Clare Cowley

  • Artist’s Statement

    The associations we make to objects observed and the light falling on them are my focus in this body of, a series titled Night Life. Pattern carries with it a sense of ritual and assist me to draw out memories from a time and a place and a relationship to somewhere or someone. And in my still life work I have been looking at the negative spaces as intently as the positive spaces in the room. The darks become an interesting theatrical part of the composition.

    With the guidance of poet Mark Doty’s pensive insights into living with objects, I painted my experience of home in the quiet of the night. He writes, ‘ if we look and look we will be surprised and we will be rewarded at the capacity of the object to carry meaning… Suppose I were to make a still life of my grandmother’s peppermints, those remembered little tokens drawn from infinity’s dark sack and offered, again and again to me…’. (Still Life With Oysters and Lemon p. 48).

    I have spontaneously arranged objects based on their aesthetic beauty to me in the moment and the way they attract light. The objects may grow meaning as I paint them.

  • Biography

    Clare Cowley - 2022
    I am an interdisciplinary artist from Allora Queensland, currently based in Brisbane. In 2014 I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Using my body as a medium, charcoal, pen, watercolour, acrylic, oil and organic materials, I respond to both the interior and exterior spaces I exist in. Recent achievements include Winner of the Womankind Illustration Award 2022 and People’s Choice at The Goondiwindi Show 2021. My exhibition history includes performance piece Tax Purge in Collaboration with Eggvein at Laura St Festival 2021; featuring with Zoe Porter and Adam Anderson for The End of The Line Festival at Pop Gallery 2017; taking part in the group drawing show Body Politic at Crane Arts in Philadelphia 2014 and my solo exhibition at Dogget St Gallery, Brisbane in 2012. I have been part of significant group projects including Artist in Residence at The Booringa Fire & Water Festival 2019 and the Qld Government funded Maranoa excursion in alignment with Ngulalma ngalinda because of her we can 2018. Working at Queensland College of Art as part the Printmaking Internship program 2014, I have also worked a as an Art Tutor at Qld TAFE, Southbank and am currently employed as a Music Teacher at The Australian Academy of Music.

  • Influences

    Mararet Olley, Jude Roberts, William Robinson, Pipilotti Rist, Zoe Porter

  • Awards

    Recent achievements include Winner of the Womankind Illustration Award 2022 and People’s Choice at The Goondiwindi Show 2021. In 2010 I was a finalist at the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture with my painting of Fiona Foley, the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and a finalist in the Lethbridge 10000 prize. I won the Warwick Art Gallery Prize for drawing 2007.

  • Exhibitions

    My exhibition history includes performance piece Tax Purge in Collaboration with Eggvein at Laura St Festival 2021; featuring with Zoe Porter and Adam Anderson for The End of The Line Festival at Pop Gallery 2017; taking part in the group drawing show Body Politic at Crane Arts in Philadelphia 2014 and my solo exhibition at Dogget St Gallery, Brisbane in 2012. I have been part of significant group projects including Artist in Residence at The Booringa Fire & Water Festival 2019 and the Qld Government funded Maranoa excursion in alignment with Ngulalma ngalinda because of her we can 2018. W

  • Website

    linktr.ee/clarecowleymusic

Showing all 3 artworks

Clare Cowley

2 am Oranges
40 x 50 x 3 cm Oil on board $400.00

Clare Cowley

Grevillia and Stoneware
30 x 20 x 2 cm Oil on Canvas $600.00

Clare Cowley

Bathroom Bliss
20 x 30 x 2 cm Oil on Canvas $450.00