The Swan (2005) Digital Arts by Chris Marshall

Chris Marshall
Perth, Western Australia
.au

Artist's Statement

I was born in the UK in 1949 and migrated to Australia with my family in 1965. In 1999 my father died of cancer just 14 weeks after first diagnosed. I had been working hard, travelling away a lot and probably had not been taking much notice of what was happening around me. My father’s death made me reassess my own life. Shortly afterwards my husband and I went to Broome in the north of Western Australia for a few days and, whilst walking on Cable Beach I remarked how, if a person was at all creative, the colours of the Kimberley were absolutely inspirational; they made you want to paint. He said “Why don’t you?”. I said all the usual stuff about couldn’t draw a straight line etc but he said “Just do it”, and that started me thinking “why not?”

So … I took up art as my New Year's resolution for the new millenium having worked in Information Technology for many years. My first art teacher used to take us ‘out and about”, teaching perspective by looking down the street or out to sea; he taught me to see (really see), to feel the colours and told me to immerse myself in art – it was a completely life-changing experience for me; the blinkers fell from my eyes and I have never looked back.

I tend to think in layers and am fascinated by the blend of the traditional and the new. I am inspired by colour and texture and the world around me and love to abstract from it and weave different aspects together to produce an integrated idea, view or statement. Most of my artworks are drawings, acrylic or mixed media paintings, photographs or digital art. The latter allows me to mix my media even more by combining my paintings, drawings and photographs and work with my light pen producing digital prints thus bringing together different strands of my life (computing background and love of art and photography).


GERMAN:

Chris Marshall
Perth, Westaustralien
.au

Künstler-Statement

Ich wurde 1949 in Großbritannien geboren und wanderte 1965 mit meiner Familie nach Australien aus. 1999 starb mein Vater an Krebs, nur 14 Wochen nach der ersten Diagnose. Ich hatte hart gearbeitet, reiste häufig und habe wahrscheinlich nicht viel wahrgenommen von dem, was um mich herum vorging. Der Tod meines Vaters ließ mich mein eigenes Leben neu bewerten. Kurz danach gingen mein Mann und ich für einige Tage nach Broome im Nordwesten Australiens und während eines Spaziergangs am "Cable Beach" bemerkte ich, daß die Farben des Kimberley (Region in Nordwest-Australien) absolut inspirierend waren für jemanden, der kreativ ist. Sie erweckten in einem den Wunsch zu malen. Er (mein Mann) sagte: "Warum nicht Du?". Ich sagte all die üblichen Dinge, wie "ich könnte noch nicht einmal eine gerade Linie zeichnen" etc., aber er sagte "Mach es einfach", und das ließ mich denken "Warum nicht?".

Nun... ich griff Kunst auf als meinen Entschluß für das neue Jahr des neuen Jahrtausends nach vielen Jahren Arb...

• Nationality: AUSTRALIA
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Australian Artists