‘String of Sirens’ Exhibition Launch: Newcastle’s Rebecca Holmes

by Helen Henry on March 8, 2011

Local artist Rebecca Noel Holmes will open the exhibition of her final body of work for her Bachelor of Fine Arts this Thursday, 10 March. The collection is called String of Sirens and is a series of portraits of female members of the Newcastle arts community. Through the collection, Rebecca hopes to not only pay tribute to those who have influenced her art, but also reflect on the people that help make Newcastle the culturally vibrant and beautiful place that it is.

I managed to catch up with Rebecca amidst the final rush before opening night - here’s what she had to say about her history, her art, her future and her love affair with Newcastle…

When did you start painting & drawing?

I’ve been painting, drawing and creating for as long as I can remember, the earliest memory I have is drawing ballerina’s and fairies with my sisters when I was little, and being forever frustrated that theirs were always better than mine.

Who are your artistic influences?

My main artistic influence is life and I hope that the work I create will continue to be just as varied and interesting as life is. Simryn Gill has been a big influence on my work. I have also had a continual interest in minimalist art, and hope to one day visit the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas to experience 100 untitled works in mill aluminum by Donald Judd in the flesh (so to speak). I also have a soft spot for Wassily Kandinsky, I saw one of his Composition pieces at an exhibition in Germany and found myself unable to move, I believe my heart was singing.

You’ve said that you’re trying to break free from realistic landscape painting & in this exhibition you’ve moved into portraiture…How are the 2 different from an artist’s perspective?

I first started painting landscapes just to see if I was able to, from there it became more of a commercial exercise, which has made landscapes harder and harder to produce. Painting landscapes and portraits has been similar in that I’m using the same techniques to achieve a certain amount of realism in the end product. I suppose with realism you don’t so much look at what it is you are painting but break it down into colour, tone, shape, line, etc. The difference between landscapes and these portraits is the goal at the end. This body of work is a way of acknowledging those people who have influenced me and the importance of this place and this community to my artistic development and my life. So in short, this body of work has a lot more love in it.

What did you find most challenging about painting portraits?

Definitely the faces, which seems obvious, but if you get the face wrong especially when its a local, everyone will notice.

Who can we expect to see amongst your portraits of female members of Newcastle’s arts community?

This series focuses primarily on those who have influenced my own artistic practice over the past three years and unfortunately I haven’t even been able to cover all of those women in this series. They are women from the Newcastle Arts community that I admire and aspire to. Namely, friends and fellow artists Kate Parker, Trine Deans, Taryn Raffan and Fiona Lee (who has actually moved away from Newcastle since I painted her portrait), Director of Watt Space Anne McLaughlin and Coordinator of Renew Newcastle Marni Jackson. I had hoped for Caelli Jo Brooker and Lisa Slade to also be in this series, as I feel that these eight women best depict the influences of the last three years of my artistic practice.

On a side note, if you think about it, the Newcastle arts community has a very strong female presence.

How did you choose your subjects?

The idea for the series came from the concept of the muse placed in a contemporary context. The first portrait of the series of Kate Parker, a very close friend of mine who has had a significant influence on my work and life, reflects this theme the most. From there on the portraits became more an reflection of the subject. Choosing the subjects was remarkably easy, there were a few women that I knew from the start had to be in the series, the others I bumped into over the period of a few months and upon seeing each of them I knew that they had to be part of the body of work as well. This process of choosing the subjects for the body of work also changed the concept slightly because as the series grew I started to realise that these women who have influenced me each have a place and involvement within this community. So it started to become a reflection of this time and place, as seen from my perspective.

What would you like to do once you finish your degree?

Once this body of work is complete and exhibited I will be moving to Sydney. I hope to do some volunteer work in art galleries in order to become involved in and develop an understanding of the Sydney art community. Other than that I will continue to study and make art, with the intention of exhibiting again in the future.

You have a visual arts studio through Renew Newcastle…How has having the studio impacted upon your art?

Having this studio has made this body of work possible, it has provided a place away from home that I can be comfortable in and make my own but dedicate entirely to creating art.

How important do you think Renew Newcastle is for Newcastle’s creative community?

Newcastle has always been a great place for artists, as it has a strong creative community and living is inexpensive. Renew Newcastle has only added to this, giving creative people an outlet to create, show and sell their work, and more importantly bring their work into the community.

What do you love most about Newcastle?

Definitely the creative community, I sound like I’m repeating myself, but it’s these people that make this place for me. There are wonderful people hiding all over the place and once you start becoming involved, going to exhibition openings, live music events like regular Wednesday nights at the Croatian Club or any given night at the Lass O’Gowrie, or wandering around during the This Is Not Art festival, you start to notice these people and how they all fit together.

Opening Night Details
‘String of Sirens’ Exhibition Launch
Watt Space, University House: Corner King and Auckland St Newcastle
Thursday, 10 March from 6:30pm
Live music by Zoe K
All welcome!
The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, 27 March.