Meet new IAVA member Lilybeth (Betty)Mayhew. We asked Betty a few questions about her art practice.
What was your earliest memory of an interaction with Art?
When I was about 4 years old in 1946 I remember drawing elaborate fairy houses and sharpening my pencil by rubbing it underneath the dining room table. When we were moving the table later we found all of my pencil scribbles underneath. These fairy dwellings were very elaborate with rooms and furniture. By the time I went to High School I discovered art books in the school library which was a formal introduction to the work of the great artists.
How would you describe your art practice? (Media; influences, approach?)
I have always looked for patterns in the world around me. In 1979 an acrylic of rooftops won the Wollongong Show prize. Water colour was my chosen media for many years, later developing into intricate collages of the Illawarra. I am currently using acrylic on canvas to try to extend my approach. I have kept extensive travel sketchbooks, in concertina form, encouraged by Wendy Sharpe on a painting trip to Luang Probang. When I return from a travel experience I use these to recreate art works of the place. Cesky Krumlov has yielded great results in collage, as has Kyoto and Dubrovnik. My large water colour and collage of Jerusalem sold at the Royal Easter Show in 2017. Place and pattern are my inspirations.
Do you have a favourite artist and/or artwork? What is it that makes them your favourite?
Colour-wise, my work is most like Chagall but I have been inspired by Australian artist Bernard Ollis with his unique perspective on landscape, using distortion of line to give a new perspective on a place. His city-scapes and still- lifes use colour and pattern in a distinctive manner. A North coast painter named Charlie Wrencher is also an inspiration with his treatment of the landscape. My all time inspiration, though you cannot see it very much in my work, is William Robinson and his use of a fish eye lens distorting the landscape. He enables the viewer to look through the centre of the landscape at the sky, as if one were lying on the ground in the centre with the natural features framing a patch of sky. Some of my work(now sold) has explored this perspective of the sky surrounded by the elements of landscape.
Most recent adventure or achievement?
In January I was the winner of the Kiama Art Prize with a collage influenced by William Robinson, which was a great validation of my work.
Any current goals you’re working towards?
I have three entries for Postcodes, and three for the Royal Easter Show on which I am working. I am open to any exhibitions which are on the horizon. I have entered the Mandorla Religious art award in Western Australia, in the past, and plan to try again in 2024. My current goal is to represent aspects of the Illawarra through landscape and pattern. A large paint and collage of Newcastle is planned this year, necessitating a trip to the area to sketch.
Jamie Cole in his studio.