NOW EXHIBITING
Habitat Weeping
Barbara Pritchard. Adv. Dip. Vis. Arts
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artists' statement
In my work, “Habitat Weeping”, I hope to convey my connection to and love for the Australian bushland which has suffered so much from fire, logging, and climate change. The silk textiles I have used are reclaimed offcuts from garments I have made, and these have been embedded into a stretched recycled fishing net background then stiffened in part with organic solutions. I have used traditional and contemporary dyeing techniques to extract colour and leaf prints from windfalls left by trees I have planted. My aim is to present the beauty of nature and the poetry within the Australian landscape.
Barbara Pritchard is an Upper Murray artist who works from her studio amongst bushland near Walwa, Victoria.
Her professional art practice covers 40 years working in mixed media, handmade inks and contemporary textiles for which she has won many awards.
Barbara is the founder of Alchemy of Colour. Her colour therapy work can now be found here in her range of healing shawls.
Barbara’s work in textiles has been recognized throughout Australia and USA as well as residing in the Victoria Museum Archives.
The wild and untamed Australian landscape inspire and inform her work which reside in collections within Australia and overseas as well as archived in Victorian Museum in Melbourne.
Much of Pritchard’s work is created using natural dyes from plant leaves and nuts she has grown herself or collected via windfalls.
At the core of Pritchard’s work is a deep respect for the environment, which is demonstrated through her use of natural, recycled and ethically sourced fibre, water, framing materials, printing techniques and solar energy.
Barbara’s art practice has developed over 40 years of living closely with the environment in the Snowy Mountain Region of Victoria.
“I work with mixed media, handmade inks and brushes, oils and textiles.
For my contemporary ecoprinted works I use silk, a natural fibre which is sourced through a company with ethical practices. For my large habitat works I use only scraps that are left from garments previously made or from repurposed or recycled dyeing projects.
My eco printing and natural dyeing techniques are used with natural leaves, bark, or seed pods I grow, and I try to restrict gathering of leaves to mainly windfalls. The frames are recycled timber with stretched upcycled Japanese fishing nets. All power used is generated through solar energy and any water used I have collected.”
“It is important to me that my art practice is not harmful for the environment and is as non-polluting as is possible.”