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
120 x 108cm Acrylic on Linen Framed $4500
80 x 90cm Acrylic on linen Framed $3750
80 x 90cm Acrylic on linen Framed $3750
80 x 90cm Acrylic on linen Framed $3750
33 x 40cm Acrylic on Linen Framed $1750
33 x 40cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1750
33 x 40cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1750
33 x 40cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1750
41 x 41cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1950
41 x 41cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1950
41 x 41cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1950
41 x 41cm Acrylic on linen Framed $1950
30 x 30cm Acrylic on Board Unframed $1200
30 x 30cm Acrylic on Board Unframed $1200
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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