JULIE POULSEN
(HIGHLY COMMENDED - $1,000 NON-ACQUISITIVE)
Small Cool Dip
House paint, mixed media on unprimed canvas
125 x 150cm
$6750
Landscape is a composite. The broad backdrop anchors place and merges with the changing foreground. Cairns, my home, a slim coastal band of tropical far north Queensland, with its familiar images of reef; of rainforest; of enchanting creeks; and raging waterfalls, is a mesmerising location.In stark contrast are the dry landscapes inland from Cairns. These regions are expansive and unruly with a constancy often misinterpreted as uninteresting. Looping through these harsh northern Australian landscapes there are hidden creeks with sandy bottoms and shady banks. On our road trips to Cooktown, numerous over forty years, we searched for new swimming spots.In Small Cool Dip I included a human element, an outlined prostrate figure centred bottom foreground, underlined in watery blue, an alien scrawl on the inland backdrop.This compelling fusion of breadth and intimacy in the landscape draws me in and is the driving force of my work.