Therese Shanley grew up in a creative home. Her paintings are mostly about people, places and objects from her everyday life. You’ll find detailed patterns in her works to help communicate her story.
How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?
I grew up on a farm in Myrrhee with my Mum, Dad, two brothers, six sisters and heaps of animals. My Mum was a very hands on lady, she made, mended and created almost everything. She could sew, knit, spin wool, darn, embroider, cook, garden and raise nine kids!
I was the last child and very fortunate to have learnt some of those skills from an early age. This love of creating continued over the years but it probably wasn’t until I was at University, where I studied Fine Art and majored in painting, that I really discovered the world of Art and Artists that still inspire me to this day. Artists such as John Brack, Charles Blackman, Joy Hester, Frieda Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Van Gogh to name a few.
Over the years the list of Artists who inspire me continues to grow even larger from Egon Schielle, Gustav Klimt, Stanley Spencer, Ben Shaun, Margaret Preston, Margaret Olly, Mirka Mora, it could just go on and on.
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What different creative media do you use in your work?
My works are predominately paintings but I do also enjoy making drypoints. They all tell their own stories which are mostly narratives about me, my feelings, my emotions, what I see around me, people and objects that inspire me or are important to me. My works are windows into my world. Sometimes these stories are about current times, what’s happening around or inside me now and sometimes I work from my childhood memories which help create a feeling of nostalgia.
Does your work have stories to tell?
My pieces are highly symbolic. They have always been a form of self portraiture in the way that the image is about me, opposed to trying to make the picture look like me. Family is also a common subject in my work. Nine siblings may be represented by nine trees in a line. Seven sisters may take the form of seven apples in a basket or cups on a table, I often paint chrysanthemums to represent my mum and blankets for warmth and protection.
My paintings and drawings are my visual diary. They are how I interpret what is going on inside and around me. They are my meditation. I will often spend hours if not days and weeks painting details like stitches on a crochet blanket, a doily or petals on flowers.
Where do you find inspiration for your designs?
The way that I work is often the same from one painting to the next. Something happens! It might be something simple that I notice a bit more than normal, like salt and pepper containers on the shelf, or perhaps catching up with an old friend that I haven’t seen for far too long, or that it’s Mothers Day and my girls and I are all home with covid.
Whatever it is, it catches my imagination and an image evolves in my mind which in turn ends up in a sketch book with all the other ideas. More often than not those sketches get ignored until finally one appears that I like and a painting will begin.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
In the studio I often start a couple of paintings at once, but then I normally just concentrate on one of them until it’s complete. I would like to say that I finish what I start but it wouldn’t be the complete truth.
Describe your creative space.
My studio is a little brick building with Boston Ivy growing around it, which I helped build during the covid years. It lives down the end of my garden. I share the space with my Labrador named Rory and if you were to go inside you’d find my CD collection there to listen to, or the birds outside are equally as pleasant.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
Time is my main obstacle with my painting, or should I say the lack of it. My paintings are very time consuming, my larger ones often stay on the easel for at least a month, which means I often have numerous other pictures I want to start before one is completed. I have more ideas in my head than I can currently poke a stick at.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Some of the best pieces of advice that I’ve received were from my mum, ’never assume’, ‘be patient’ and ‘keep trying’.
Where can people see your work?
My work is currently on display at the Hyphen Art Space in Wodonga, Victoria. My exhibition ’The World on the Inside’ will be running until the 3rd of February, 2025.
I do have a website which is in serious need of updating, it is thereseshanley.com and I also have an instagram account which is @therese_shanley_art
Interview posted December 2024
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