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WENDY MCDONALD
LITTLE FOREST AND OTHER PLACES

 

Little Forest and Other Places continues the focus of my 2021 work. Issues of water in our broader landscape, the nature food production and the rehabilitation of floodplain habitat shape our everyday here.  These issues  are underlying drivers of my practice.

 In this body of work  I am introducing Little Forest for the first time ... an intimately scaled, Westerly corner of the Koondrook Perricoota Forest icon site. Ecological work has commenced here using the same community driven model as the highly successful Pollack Swamp environmental  watering  program. I look forward with great anticipation to seeing this habitat evolve over coming years. Please share my ongoing exploration of these special landscapes.  

 

Wendy McDonald 2022            

   

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Wendy McDonald is both painter and farmer. A working life spent on Thule Lagoon feeds inspiration for McDonald’s painting and printmaking by providing a true sense of how the landscape works. Her work draws from a lived experience of the ecology of the local environment, the ebb and flow of the creeks and rivers and the dramatic changes of the seasons. She is honoured to tell the story of these significant ephemeral floodplains. Recent works are deeply embedded in the story of the community led environmental restoration of the wetland known as The Pollack Swamp, a significant ecological and cultural heritage site closely connected to the famous Blandowski etchings of the 1850's. More broadly, her work seeks to engage us in conversations about water in our landscapes.      

 

McDonald’s work has been shown in galleries across NSW and Victoria and in Sydney and Melbourne, with pieces in private collections around the world. Her paintings have featured in national publications and in 2018 she was profiled in the Thames & Hudson release "A Painted Landscape" by Amber Creswell Bell. Recent projects include a collaboration with respected textile company Nancybird to design their winter 2021 range and a TWIG residency for Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery. Wendy has been a finalist in numerous awards including The NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize (2016,2017 & 2018), the Paddington Art Prize, The Calleen Art Prize and The Swan Hill Print & Drawing Acquisitive Prize.

 

"The free but considered mark making by Wendy McDonald in her paintings and drawings reinterpret a country she knows so well. Billabongs, dry lakes, creeks and rivers, redgum and box country, sandhills, forests and farms.

This is the home and workplace for McDonald. Her discerning and insightful eye bring an authority to the work that can only come by someone deeply invested in this landscape."

 

Ian Tully, Director Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 2020

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"Artists of all types are our most talented communicators. Claude Monet’s impressionistic paintings of waterlilies remain one of the world’s most powerful wetland imagines. Instantly recognisable his images cross all social and cultural borders and speak to us all individually.

Full appreciation comes through an intimate knowledge of the subject. The wetlands of the Central Murray Region are complex in ecological structure and seasonal variations. Capturing these natural subtleties and differences as Wendy does so skilfully gives an intimate and unique view, improving our appreciation and understanding of these precious and iconic wetlands."  

 

Dan Hutton,  Environmental Consultant 2020

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WENDY MCDONALD CV

Qualifications:  Bachelor of Arts (Ed), Deakin University                                                          

 

 Solo Exhibitions

2021  Witness, Boom Gallery, Geelong

2021  Special release, AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell

2020   New Works, AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell

2019  History &Geography, Works from Pollack Swamp, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

2019  Transitions, Elms Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney

2019  Quietly, Koskela Gallery, Sydney

2018    “And So It Goes” , AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell

2016   "This Place 2" , Campaspe Regional Library                                                           

2016   "This Place" Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, travelling exhibition, Cohuna 

2016   “This Place” , Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

2010    Landscapes from the Murray Darling, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

           

Group Exhibitions, Prizes & Residencies

2021  Nancybird Textile Collaboration, S S 2021

2020   Floodplain, Group Exhibition, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

2019   ACRE Residency (Noorong), Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

2019    Recent Acquisitions and Works from the Permanent Collection Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery     

2018    Finalist, The NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Parliament House, Sydney

2018    “A Painted landscape”, Special Group Studios, Sydney

2018    “Regional Women’s Exhibition”, Southern Buoy Studios

2017    Finalist, The NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Parliament House, Sydney

2017    "The Inauguration", Southern Buoy Studios, Melbourne

2017     "At Home", Birds Gallery, Melbourne   

2016    Finalist, The NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Parliament House, Sydney

2016    "LIFE, still"  , Saint Cloche, Sydney

2016    "Twelve, Koskela, Sydney

2016     Annual Group Show, Lauriston Press, Kyneton 

2015    Artist in residence, Aspire Me Regional Arts Camp, Riverina

2015    Finalist, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery

2014    Artist in residence, Aspire Me Regional Arts Camp, Riverina

2013    Artist in residence, Aspire Me Regional Arts Camp, Riverina

2012    Artist in residence, Aspire Me Regional Arts Camp, Riverina

2011    Finalist, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery

2010    SW Arts “Terrain” Exhibition, Griffith Regional Art Gallery

2010    “Terrain” Exhibition, Cube 37 Gallery, Frankston

2010    Art in the Port, Echuca

2009    Finalist, Paddington Art Prize, Sydney

2009    Finalist, Country Energy Landscape Prize, Lismore Regional Art  Gallery

2009    Art Sydney, 2009

2009    South West Arts Showcase Exhibition

2009    Finalist, Calleen Art award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery

2009    Canterbury Art Exhibition

2008    Artist, SW Arts “Muster Moments” sculpture project

2008    Recipient, Regional Arts NSW professional development "Quicks" grant

2008    Finalist, National Print and Drawing Awards, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

 2008    FOUR travelling exhibition, Robinvale and Kerang

2008    FOUR group exhibition, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

2008    Finalist, Stanthorpe Art Prize, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery

2008    Canterbury Art Exhibition

2008    Restdown Vintage Group Exhibition

2007    Canterbury Art Exhibition

2007    Restdown Vintage Group Exhibition

2007    Professional Development Scholarship, Murrumbidgee School of Creative Arts, Charles    

            Sturt University

2006    Artist, SW Arts Conagro Shire project

2006    Artist, SW Arts Long Paddock Tourism project

2005    Co- designer, “Transmute” mosaic ute Deniliquin community art project

 

Bibliography

2021 Galah Magazine, Issue 4, Water Nov 2021

2018 “A Painted Landscape” by Amber Creswell Bell, pub Thames and Hudson

2016, Australian Country Style Magazine, March issue 

2013, Australian Country Style Magazine, April issue

2010, Home Beautiful Magazine, Nov. issue, page 1

2009, Paddington Art Prize Lecture, Joe Frost

 

Collections

Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

 

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