I Need A Magic Pill Or A Dose Of Super Potion
Tamara Mendels

I Need A Magic Pill Or A Dose Of Super Potion

$4,000 AUD
AUD $4,000 AUD

2026 – Original

Acrylic, synthetic polymer and epoxy resin on canvas.

95cm x 85cm

Artwork Statement
Freedom to paint poses more questions than answers. Too much freedom and you paint nothing; too little and the work becomes boring and redundant. Painting requires structure and confinement. Within set boundaries, works of art can be made. Stabbing in the dark leads to an unrefined chaos.

I have created my own set of rules for making work. Within these parameters, a multitude of possibilities exists. Outside them lies confusion, uncertainty and an inability to move forward. It is these very limitations that allow me the freedom to create.

I Need a Magic Pill or a Dose of Super Potion speaks to the desire for motivation, a little help to get things moving. Sometimes I have so many ideas running through my head that I become overwhelmed and unable to act. Can art help us get unstuck? Can a painting offer some relief from the constant demands of connectivity, reactivity and the mundane routines of everyday life? The painting becomes its own magic pill, a way of breaking free from inertia and turning imagination into action.

Blue takes on a transcendental quality as forms collide and overlap, creating a sense of sound, movement and pulsating energy. There is something cosmic about it, as though everything is vibrating at once. The painting is an energy generator. Could this be the magic pill we are all searching for?

Read: Artist Process

Learn more about Tamara Mendels

Spontaneous, rhythmic gestures lay the foundation for my practice. Certain markings draw me in that I then reconstruct on canvas. Fleeting gestures are fixed in place and given symbolic weight, ribbons of colour are then moulded into form bound by a black outline. Punctuated by psychic dripping blob-like structures, they strike down as cognitive intrusions destabilising the linear flow. My process oscillates between chance and control, method and spontaneity. For me, abstraction offers a way to mirror the complexities of human experience.

Tamara Mendels lives and works in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia. She has been a finalist in numerous prizes, including the Wollumbin Art Prize (2026, 2024), the Wollongong Art Prize (2025), the Urunga Small Sculpture Prize (2025), and was the recipient of the Fauvette Loureiro Traveling Scholarship, Sydney College of the Arts (2008). Mendels’ work is held in The Leeder Art Collection, Tweed Regional Gallery and private collections.

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