The Blog

Please join us at the Orange Regional Gallery for the Wicked Women exhibition, featuring portraits of contemporary Australian Women influenced by pulp fiction covers and film noir imagery.  Subjects include Margaret Cunneen SC, crime writer Tara Moss, actor and director Rachel Ward, Professor Larissa Behrent, World queen of Burlesque Imogen Kelly, amongst others.  Margaret Cunneen will be the guest speaker.  Available at the exhibition are Wicked Women postcards, a DVD showing the process of creation, and a limited edition catalogue.  

I have some works on display in this exhibition opening at Bathurst Regional Gallery on the 1st August.  These are from my residency at the Haefliger cottage, Hill End, in 2003.  Which started my love affair with Hill End. This work titled " Jean Bellette's Bed" was inspired by the bed in Haefligers  cottage, and surrounding landscape, in particular a scene I experienced when passing through Sallys Flat one evening around sunset. Burning off had taken place, and the darkening sky was misted with smoke.  The evenings are so spectacular in Hill End with streams of golds and reds, against the darkening land, and you become aware of the very spiritual and ghostly presences around you.  Hence the disturbed and tousled bed as though the sleeper could not rest. 'Into the Dark' is a landscape from the rear of Haefligers cottage looking towards the East as sunset occurs.  There is a small running figure - on closer observation you can see it is a nun.  In 2003 a performance troupe led by Julie-Anne Long, reinacted the Jeffrey Smart painting of the Nun's Picnic - my quick homage is below.  For a period of 4 weeks,  nuns would appear in different places around Hill End, and in this case one of them was seen running towards the town.      

I have a work in this group show which is open to artists living within a 50 km radius of Orange.  The show opens on the 6th December and closes 2nd February 2014.  Its a beautiful gallery and well worth visiting.  I have one of the tea cups - Lily of the Valley - in this show.

Lovely surprise on Saturday to read the online Guardian and Larissa Behrendt's choice of my work above: Germaine Greer as Artemis   Also had a special day on Sunday with the Open Studios in Hill End - weather perfect, interesting visitors to the studio, a string quartet in the local park, and flowing champagne!  What a great weekend!

I am opening my studio to the public for the first time on Sunday 22nd Sept.  This is part of the Hill End Open Day and other artists participating are Luke Sciberras, curator Gavin Wilson, Rebecca Wilson, Bill and Genevieve Moseley.  Come to beautiful Hill End and visit us - there will be music in the park and good food at the store, the pub and Hosies.  This day is a fund raiser to renovate the old Catholic Church and you can buy tickets at the Royal Hall from 9am, from where you will get directions to the studios (which will the close at 3.30pm.)    For more information check out the website for the Hill End Arts Council. Looking forward to seeing you, and here are a couple of pictures of my studio.

Last year my dear friend, Danelle Bergstrom, while doing a year long residency in Sweden, found a very special cup and saucer which combined both of my recent themes:  decorative tea cups and pulp fiction women.  She posted it to me and just recently I have been able to do a portrait of it.  So here is Swedish Delights 2013, oil on canvas 56 x 61cm. Here is a detail of the bathing beauties - a great antidote to the freezing weather and strong winds currently experienced in Hill  End.  

Please join us in the Blackett Court of the Justice & Police Museum, Sydney, for the final viewing of the Wicked Women exhibition hosted by the Historic Houses Trust.  This exhibition, which has run for a fabulous seven months, is the culmination of four years of Rosemary's work and  has been met with wide public and critical interest.  This is a special opportunity to not only see the exhibition before it closes, but to purchase work and have the opportunity to talk to Rosemary  about the series, as she will be present on the day.  Sales enquiries - valadonart1@gmail.com

Examples of new works are below:

Back home to the cats, wild rabbits, kangaroos etc, and the roses blooming again.  it was a wonderful night on Friday at the panel discussion mediated by Annette Shun Wah and panel members Larissa Behrendt, Charles Waterstreet and Antonella Gambotto-Burke.  Talk ranged from the possibility of being 'wicked' as a virtue, to woman as 'source', how each sitter felt about the portrait process and their own stories of what was brought up for them.  My intention in painting these portraits, was to show the 'dark' side of personality that is not usually seen, but to keep it a fantasy, play acting, dressing up - not necessary to act out on these impulses.  There is only one drop of blood (painted) in the entire show, and in this painting I made the gun fire (Billion Dollar Body).  I had a wonderful time and thank Historic Houses Trust for putting on this event, and to the panel and all the people who attended, my heartfelt thanks.

Special Event: She couldn't be good

As part of the Wicked Women exhibition, join us for a raunchy panel discussion on the virtues of being a wicked woman. She couldn't be good features exhibition models Charles Waterstreet, Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Annette Shun Wah and Larissa Behrendt. Entry includes a curator-led tour of Rosemary Valadon's Wicked Women exhibition and drinks. Includes refreshments. Licensed event. Ages 18+ Book your tickets online She couldn't be good General: $30 Concession/member: $25 Justice & Police Museum Cnr Phillip & Albert sts, Circular Quay Friday 15 March 6pm-9pm About our panelists Charles Waterstreet is one of Sydney's most prominent and colourful barristers. He spends most of his courtroom career at the criminal bar, in jury trials on behalf of the defence. He has argued successfully in the High Court on equity and criminal law. A producer and writer, Charles holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law from Sydney University, and has also  taught law at University of New South Wales. Antonella Gambotto-Burke is an internationally published critic, journalist, and novelist. Her work is included in various anthologies, and she is the author of four books, the most recent of which – The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide - was described by Nicholas Humphrey, author of A History of the Mind, as “an astonishing, deep and beautiful book.” The tenth anniversary edition of The Eclipse, with a new preface by the president of the American Association of Suicidology, will be published in ebook format in April. Antonella's fifth book will be out later this year. For more information, subscribe to www.antonellagambottoburke.com Annette Shun Wah is a writer, actor, producer and broadcaster. Her non-fiction has been published in several anthologies including Grandma Magic and Growing Up Asian in Australia, and she co-authored the award-winning book Banquet – Ten Courses to Harmony, exploring Chinese integration in Australia through links with food. In 2011 Annette wrote and directed the smart phone app China Heart, telling the story of marriage and family in Sydney’s Chinatown. Professor Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney, and is admitted to the Supreme Court of the ACT and NSW as a barrister. Larissa is the author of several books on Indigenous legal issues. She was named NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2009 and NSW Australian of the Year in 2011.