The Collection
Alice Alder
26 May to 20 June 2023
Since graduating university Alice Alder has worked as graphic designer in the Western Australia and showcased her contemporary art in an array of exhibitions since 2016. Based in my Capel studio, Alder explores the atmospheric world of contemporary art through landscape oil paintings. Her journey first began creating watercolour illustration for her published books. Struggling to start a relationship with oil paints, until she began to approach the oils the same as the techniques used with watercolours. Creating a contemporary style, Alder has developed a raw and unvarnished truth of nature. These rough watermarks and layers create an absence of idealism in the art of landscapes. Alder’s use of contemporary impressionism is rendered with loose, expressive brushwork and a focus on the effects of implied light to show subtle vitality of time. Inspired by the aim to evoke an emotional connection to her creations, Alder’s pieces gives an impression of what could be, rather than what is. As a person with Dyslexia and Synesthesia, Alder combines her visions to classical music capturing formations that build up to an indomitable landscape in a figurative moment in seasonal change.
Vincent Van Gogh was once said, “…paint runs through my veins”. This phrase has always resonated deeply with me. I can’t imagine a time in my life where a brush has not been in my hand. I may not have always reached for oil paints but I have always responded to the current life happenings through the expression of the arts. Having Dyslexia I have not always been able to express myself verbally that captured my response to the moment. But with painting, I don’t have to over think in the moment I can simply be and the work flows freely.
My latest collections of art works show a capsule of the last 12 months of highs and lows – the response to the even changing world around. Each painting is made up of thin layers of oil paint washes that build up to form high details, in some areas, while other areas of the painting form a haze of colour – depicting a memory quality that evokes a scene flashing past moving car. Although I was classically trained in the arts, I lean towards to contemporary style to build an understanding between the world, the audience and the artist. I draw great inspiration from the old to express my person style.
Using classical pigments that entwine with the meditative landscapes, that we are blessed to see in this modern world. Each painting allows the audience a chance to breathe and calm their minds – take a break from the demands of daily life that expects so much from us. I want the audience to feel the emotion from my daily life in these works; to read the details, to see the memory and respond to the rich pigments in each scene. From dark to light, each work of art captures the classic state of time and shifting mental prologs that run through my mind.
