For Leah Thiessen the act of painting is an ever-evolving process. Responding to the sight and sounds that surround her home and studio on the edge of the Terranora Broadwater in Northern NSW, her work is heavily textured and tactile like the terrain that is around her. Each artwork is an excavation and a palimpsest of how she senses the world. This will be Leah's second solo exhibition with the gallery.
Catalogue essay by Sharne Wolff, 2023 Put simply, Biome is a word that refers to a biological community formed in response to place. Reflecting this idea, Leah Thiessen’s new solo exhibition is inspired by her working environment and it’s hard to imagine writing about the show without experiencing her magical studio. Surrounded by tall gums, Thiessen’s workroom overlooks the Terranora Broadwater, a large tidal bay which forms part of the Tweed River estuary in far north New South Wales. Immersed in this unique space with its shimmering light and tranquil feel, Thiessen’s paintings embody the subtle essence of this natural place.
For the body of works in Biome, Thiessen has worked in oils. Side by side we can observe contrasts between the softer palette of the works on canvas and linen with the physicality of those on board. Employing a harmonious palette of joyous pinks, warm oranges and yellows and a range of tonal blues together with black and white, the depth and strength of colour in Thiessen’s abstracts is often linked to her output of physical energy. While nature is an important inspiration, her paintings are not of specific places seen or observed, nor is her work derived from photographs. Rather, each painting is created instinctively, expressively and viscerally from things – both tangible and intangible – that become seized in the artist’s mind. Liberated from order she begins a painting with fresh marks and builds the textural surface, layering paint over and over. “I want the mystery – I want to be lost in the painting and not know where I’m going”, the artist reveals.
While Thiessen finds painting on canvas and linen is a fluid, gestural process, her boards are approached with gusto – she’ll employ oil sticks and ink, carving into the board, scraping and drawing and sometimes using spray paint. As the process of making continues – sometimes over months – shapes appear and recede, portals reveal themselves and evaporate. Can we be certain then of what we think we see? Fleeting shapes in the forest? Sunlight flickering on the bay? Beckoning pathways and open doors? Or maybe not. Alive with possibility and suggestion, Thiessen’s energised images keep the eye active and allow viewers to become captivated by what they see.
When Thiessen says that painting is her way of connecting, of expressing things that are unknown even to her, she invites us to become familiar with her artistic language and to feel the power of her art. As well-known New York art critic, Jerry Saltz puts it, “…careful observation reveals how powerful abstraction can be, how it is still a tool that circumvents language, disrupts identification, dissolves narrative, delays the crystallization of meaning, and becomes a reality unto itself.”
ARTIST BIO:Leah Thiessen has been exhibiting nationally since 2010. In 2022 she was listed in the Top 100 Collectable Artists (top100artists.com). She has been a finalist in the Calleen Art Award (2022, 2019, 2016, 2015), the Lethbridge Landscape Art Prize (2022), the Muswellbrook Art Prize (2021), the John Leslie Prize (2020, 2018, 2016), the Glover Prize (2020), the John Villiers Art Prize for Small Works (2020), the Clayton UTZ Art Award (2019), the Gosford Art Prize (2019), and the Paddington Art Award (2016) among others. She has exhibited nationwide since 2010. Her work is held in the Arthur & Suzie Roe Collection.
