Salon des Animaux (Animal Salon), is a body of work reflecting my passion for animals, art-historical paintings & sculptures, & story telling.
Salon references the 17th century Paris Salons. These early art establishments were fraught with artistic prejudice, judgement & passion. Before long, they were suitably challenged by the birth of break-away salons such as Salon Des Refuses. (Exhibition Of Rejects). I am fascinated by the drama and culture of the European art world during the 17th -19th centuries, & see some similarities in todays’ art society.
At the National Art Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, I fell in love with the Schaeffer Gallery. - A room filled with bronze sculptures and opulently framed floor to ceiling paintings in the manner of the original french salons. This inspired me to create a series of paintings expanding on the stories of my sculptures, providing a stage for their performance. Gesso transfer onto walnut allows me to overtly reference historical paintings and their stories. The added oil painting transforms them into my own aesthetic and narrative interpretation.
My sculptures are predominantly created in wax. They are cast in bronze by Jonathan Campbell, Created and Cast Bronze, Wellington.