Louise Daniels - About my Art Practice
I am a Tasmanian visual artist of
trawlwoolway/palawa heritage, with Irish and British ancestry.
My art practice incorporates drawing, painting, and wire sculpture. Primarily, my work references Country and cultural histories incorporating a deep exploration and re-telling of the experiences of my ancestors, contextualised in the present.
My landscapes celebrate the colours, land-forms and watercourses of beautiful North Western Tasmania where I grew up and currently live. As a palawa woman I feel a strong family connection with this place and I express this personal connection through my paintings. Much of my work features the rolling, multi-coloured farmlands around Forth with the Dial Range to the west or the Great Western Tiers soaring up in the east.
I also make figurative aluminium wire sculpture and enjoy creating little wire sculptural narratives. Many with humour, some with love, many are representations of familiar moments in human life.
I have been a finalist in a number of state and national art prizes, and held numerous solo exhibitions, and participate in group exhibitions across Australia. My work is held in private collections in both Australia and overseas. I have recently completed a public art project for the HIVE in Ulverstone's new Cultural Precinct, SWARM, a sculptural installation of large, aluminium bees. In 2022 I had a solo exhibition, Hearth, at Sawtooth ARI in Launceston, and have a body of work in taypani milaythina-tu showing at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery until 12th February 2023.
Also a researcher and co-author of publications on Aboriginal family history, my recent art practice explores my connection to the palawa ancestors who endured the brutal colonisation of Tasmania in the early nineteenth century. My 2019 Bachelor of Contemporary Arts Honours exegesis, Giving Voice, was a journey into the remarkable life of my matriarch, woretemoeteryenner (1795–1847), which led to an interpretation and visual representation of woretemoeteryenner’s story. I am a participant in taypani milaythina-tu (Returning to Country) - a Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery project bringing Tasmanian Aboriginal creatives together to respond to artifacts in museum collections. I have completed various public and private commissions and I manage my own professional arts practice.
I continue my research into family and Aboriginal history and use the visual arts to express these narratives through my personal lens. I am currently experimenting with natural and mixed media, including kelp, found charcoal and ochres.