Tender Memories: Stephanie Eather, Nicola Higgins, Kirsty Neilson & Kate Nielsen

Tender Memories is an exhibition that brings four painters to the gallery in a show rich in human intrigue and aesthetic beauty. One is struck by the ambiguity that reveals powerful subliminal messages—the red thread that binds the paintings in the show. The artists pose questions: What do I believe in? What do I see in the landscape? What about the moments in our lives forever etched into our minds from birth to death and beyond—are they dreams or memories? The crazy haze of contemporary life can obscure much. This show slows us, and in that act, reveals what we may be missing in our haste. 

Kirsty Neilson’s passion for painting en plein air has been integral to her practice for several years—inspiration is never far away for the painter willing to step outside the studio. Her recent landscapes are now imbued with the detritus of the carnival—the fun fair is over... or is it? We have now entered her world, glorious in its half-lit glow. They are past and present attractions of the mind. It is a world of fading bright lights from a child's mechanical paradise, looming out of the Australian bush. In many respects, Neilson is providing us with a moving, nostalgic extension to the Heidelberg artists—different aims, perhaps, but no less evocative.

Nicola Higgins’ meditations on the moments of reflection point to ideas of beauty and personal introspection. Rich in symbolism, the works are realist in methodology, yet sit somehow in an unreal world. They draw upon her intrinsic skills with form and pattern. We are led into a world of interwoven associations—places, events, music, love, loss—ricocheting us back to a moment in time.

Stephanie Eather’s practice has its genius in the far-flung shearing sheds of the Australian outback. Known for her powerful charcoal drawings—these are automatic Duchampian investigations into the rigours of the repetitive long dance of shearer and ram. Eather’s work has now pushed beyond the literal. Recognised imagery is now the idea of place rather than an actual place—it is drawn from her mind. This is a fascinating shift that records what has happened in her residual memory of the place. Architectural structures and constantly moving figures have now become subordinate to colour and form. The backblocks of Kuungkari country (Central Queensland) are imbued with a Fauve-like quality. Deeply original, the works delve into the most iconic image of Australian rural pictorial history. In doing so, the artist is twisting the kaleidoscope—challenging long-held perceptions of this land.

Kate Nielsen’s interiors speak directly to the title of the exhibition. The intimacy of the interiors—rich in colour, form and shape—points to flowers and household objects, all richly patterned with a hint of the outside world. The reference to the nineteenth-century aesthetic of Japonisme is strong. The flattening of three-dimensional space allows her ever-present sense of pattern to fill the picture plane in a step or two from organised abstraction. Yet we feel at home in her work—it’s a place that provides relief from an ever-encroaching outside world.