Beauty as a force

By Sharne Wolff

Savanhdary Vongpoothorn is assisted in her practice by her father who helps grid her canvases and perforate them with small holes before she applies layers of acrylic paint. Although she’s used the same working method for a while, she’s taken fresh inspiration for this exhibition from Australia’s ‘scribbly gum’ and a collaboration with Leon Trainor, poet and Canberran.

The scribbly gum is the common term for several species of Eucalyptus tree that take their colloquial name from the brown markings left by the larvae of the tiny scribbly moth. You’ve no doubt seen the trees in the bush (or the backyard) where their pale trunks look like they’ve been autographed with natural graffiti. The artist discovered her vision for this show near the family home at Mt Irvine in the Blue Mountains.

Vongpoothorn’s paintings are in part an attempt to extract or unravel any meaning found in the scribbles. She’s also drawn to beauty and her work portrays the simple beauty revealed by the natural landscape and felt through the senses – by belonging in it. There’s a sense of this security found in the cosy repetition of Vongpoothorn’s patterns. Paradoxically, because they’re made by hand, as in nature, they can never be the same.

Until March 31

Martin Browne Contemporary, Paddington