Interview
Maree Neilsen
Maree Neilsen is an artist, educator and a mother. She was born in Sydney, New South Wales and was raised through her early years across Sydney, Melbourne and then Brisbane which has been her home base for many years. Most of her professional career has been spent as an educator teaching and leading in high school settings across Queensland and then leading support services for schools across the state through a range of system leadership roles. A personal sabbatical provided a time of challenge and reflection, leading her to be courageous and to believe in her own artistic skills and abilities. Maree enjoys a wide range of creative pursuits, which also include a recently developed value for upcycling so that we can better contribute to a blue economy and a healthier world. She is known to find a furniture item that has been exited from a neighbourhood home and to renovate this to give it a new life in her home. Maree is proud of this, as she believes culturally we invest too much value in big homes and new belongings instead of the important balance of living within your means and having time for self and others.
Her sabbatical for self and wellbeing enabled her to focus upon her own self belief in regard to her skills outside of the corporate teaching career that she had invested many years in. She has worked to build confidence for change and the Yallaroo Studio brand became a key vehicle for her to develop momentum in this period of change. Yallaroo studio has enabled her to refine her own creative skills and to visually build her own gallery wall has been pivotal to her next steps. The studio is a place to display and sell work and also the right environment to further her potential to accept commission work. For her, it is also important to weave together a long history of educating others with her love and passion for the arts through delivering workshops. She regularly liaises with her sister, Anne, who resides in Melbourne and she knows that the studio space is ultimately about them both painting together one day soon. Her sister, Anne, has been her greatest teacher in developing her artistic talents over time through immersive learning. She is sure that her siblings would also say the same as they all share a love of art.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I live in Brisbane, Australia with my two teenage children. The family I grew up with, are my greatest influence and important in telling my story. Particularly my sister, Anne Smith (nee Burgin) who has been the long term artist in our family. Both Anne and I are also the educators of the family, trained teachers living in different states of the country but who are very closely connected through a shared love of art and creativity. Anne undertook formal art training prior to becoming a qualified art teacher. I became a qualified teacher and then quietly explored my creative potential always learning from my sister. I have been very indulged to have been able to adorn the walls of the houses that I have lived with Anne's work, building beautiful spaces and creating a sense of home. I didn’t realise until more recently, how rich the immersive training was with my sister. All of my siblings, I am one of six children, have a love of art that Anne has fostered as she shared her work with us over the years.
Consequently, I have an adventurous mind curiously considering the creative possibilities of designing and building beautiful aesthetic spaces to enjoy. In recent years, I have intensively explored my creative skills while rebuilding the gardens of our latest family home where we have been not quite three years. This house that is our home is a majestic lowset Queenslander built in 1890. I felt it important to build gardens to complement this beautiful historic house, to add and enhance the overall beauty with respect for all who have gone before me in this home. In the garden, I focused on composition, building layers, creating open spaces enhanced with bold colourful bursts of nature through the addition of flowers. Light and dark challenged me as different garden rooms unfolded before me and flowers continued to be a key element bringing new life into long established green spaces. These gardens have been my largest canvas to work on and it was time to consider naming this beautiful home; Yallaroo.
Yallaroo means beautiful flowers in aboriginal language and respectfully was a perfect choice. Full of pride for all I had achieved it was clear that creative wellness was as tangible as the garden in front of me. I knew that I wanted to share both the creative process and the outcome with others. In the rear corner of the garden was our carport, very important in Queensland to keep cars safe from both heat and summer storms which may bring hail but my curious mind saw new creative possibilities for this space. Yallaroo studio emerged and became the last outdoor room to be designed with cars now exposed to the Queensland summer sun. It was time to transition my creative energy from this huge garden canvas and return to the joy of paint on canvas. As Picasso spoke the words 'art washes from the soul the dust of everyday'.”
What inspires you?
“I remember completing a high school assignment featuring the work and life of Henry Moore who said ‘to be an artist is to believe in life.’ This holds deep meaning for me as I harness the energy that builds inside me from my love of outside spaces, the sky, the land and water I feel inspired to create. I am innately inspired by nature and look for ways to bring the outdoors in and the indoors out so that transitions between spaces feel seemless. Whether the design is paint on canvas or building garden spaces that I then infuse into my work my senses fill when I breathe deeply the outside air and I find an overwhelming respect for my place in this world. The energy of nature emits from within as I apply paint to canvas. The inspiration to share the joy of creativity and creative wellness with others is a driver and has led to the development of art workshops at Yallaroo Studio. The intent to share the gardens of Yallaroo with others and also the joy of art is achieved through the beautiful open air studio of Yallaroo. Utilizing my many years of teaching experience, I am able to carefully design workshops which allow participants to explore their own creative joy while in a peaceful social setting.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“It is by no surprise that the key themes I explore are nature and quite often floral subjects. I enjoy the exploration of colour, texture and line as strong elements to build the narrative on canvas. Respect for nature and the beauty of outdoor spaces provides me with endless inspiration that enables me to unveil the complexity of life as I build layers of depth and light into the work. The greatest underlying theme in all of my work is to find courage and just explore my own joy of creating beautiful things. I added a fabulous upcycled quotes board to my studio wall recently and with chalk I regularly add quotes from art legends which reminds me that we all have a shared story to build our own self belief and to share with others the social learnings collaboratively building culture. I think I need to pick up the chalk and add this quote from Andy Warhol to the board ; "Don't think about making art just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art". I love this as I believe the theme of self belief is what unites all artists ultimately, we create what we feel and convey to others the emotions that we held in a story to be shared. We need to believe in ourselves as artists and also as storytellers.”
“It is by no surprise that the key themes I explore are nature and quite often floral subjects. I enjoy the exploration of colour, texture and line as strong elements to build the narrative on canvas.”
How would you describe your work?
“My work is varied and a progression between abstract and realism pending the subject chosen. Big themes in nature like 'seasons' inspire abstract work to unfold the deep story of change. An impressionist approach is my way of unpacking the beauty of a flower or a scene in nature to show the colours within, not just what is seen at the surface. I love to explore time of day through a series response to a subject, what colours do I see and feel if I view this subject early on a winter morning versus late on summer afternoon. Layers of colour and texture are built into my work to ensure that the difference of daylight versus evening interior lighting will unveil different shades and provide a different emotional experience for the viewer. I enjoy the engagement of visitors to the Yallaroo studio with my work as they explore individual pieces and create their own connection and story within a work. Ultimately, that is the talking point and moment of social connection that we can evoke through our work. Choice of colours in a work is not just about matching in to a lounge room colour scheme rather it powerfully conveys emotion and is key to the narrative.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Through my own high school training in art and then beyond at the informal guide of my sister Anne, I have been very inspired by Monet, Van Gogh and also Gustav Klimt. My connection to nature is shared with these artists but also the different ways in which each artist utilizes colour, texture and line. My work certainly embraces the joy of shimmer through rich golds, coppers and bronzes to embellish the subject. My inspiration for this has been long held through the work of Gustav Klimt. Ultimately my greatest artistic influence for my development as an artist has been Anne. As I have studied her work, albeit on the walls of my home, my parents or other family members, I have long admired the adventurous play with colour and contrast. She has worked with a wide range of medium and I have the advantage of selecting my preferred medium of working with acrylic inspired by her work. My love for abstract work has been inspired more recently by a range of contemporary artists, too many to name, who navigate the channels of social media with prowess to share their work and collectively co-create what is a vibrant virtual gallery with every click or swipe.”
What is your creative process like?
“I cannot say that my work is planned but rather it unfolds where I am the director of the work. In these moments my self permission to explore and develop work between palette knife and brush, etc is adventurous. Picasso is on my quotes board several times and the reference to painting as another way of keeping a diary is so real for me. I begin work and enjoy the process of change that unfolds, a metamorphosis occurs as new colours build and change evolving with my own emotional story. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of accepting commission work with specific requests for subject matter. In this instance I see the client as the director of the work. This is where the next stretch of my own personal learning occurs, the next development of depth in my work appears most at these times. Regardless of who is sitting in the director chair to determine the content of a piece of work, for me what is always hardest in the process is the common moment in front of me each time; when to stop or do I need to do a little more work? I feel very fortunate to have the Yallaroo Studio space because I can hang the work on the gallery wall and pause to reflect before refining. One more colour, one more line to highlight or create shade is always driven by an inner feeling that just seems right. And then my initials turn up boldly on the canvas to say its time to stop.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“It has been a timeless opportunity for art to deliver beauty while also providing a vehicle to share an important narrative. More than ever it is the right time to harness a shared imperative for the arts to be at the forefront of communities at all levels, locally and globally. The arts can bring together social groups to share time both socially and as a learning point. For artists, whatever the medium, it is our time to draw others towards us to share and learn through the creative process. It is through this process that we can contribute to the health and wellness of individuals and of communities. It is a paramount time for creative wellness to be a purpose in the design of community events and social planning. It is for this reason that Yallaroo Studio is not just a place for me to paint but a place that draws others from the community in to experience the peaceful and beautiful setting of Yallaroo gardens while being adventurous with paint, canvas and other medium in different art workshops.”
Instagram: @yallaroo_studio
Brush Bio: www.brush.bio/neilma
