Manitou (Ode to Yvonne), 2023
Acrylic on canvas framed in reclaimed wood
103 x 77 cm
I first encountered the work of Yvonne Audette in 2021 at the exhibition of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 To Now at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. She has been called ‘Australia’s greatest living abstract painter’, and yet few people in the general public know of her incredible work. In my opinion, she should be revered just as much as any of her abstract expressionist contemporaries. Two of her works were hanging next two each other in that exhibition: The Long Walk, 1964 and Cantata No. 8, 1957-58, both oil on plywood. I distinctly recall Cantata No. 8, in particular, catching my eye. I lingered in front of it for quite some time. It clearly made an impression on me. Similarly layered, graffiti-like mark making would later become prevalent in some of my own paintings, this one being the first of that kind. It is a process that I find endlessly fascinating and meditative, as Audette herself has also described it.
I initially titled this painting Manitou but later decided the parenthetical Ode to Yvonne was appropriate given that I felt I owed a great deal of my inspiration to her. Manitou, for what it’s worth, is the name of a small, unincorporated community not far from where I was born in Kentucky where my grandparents had a farm on which I spent many halcyon days of my youth. The word Manitou is Native American in origin, Algonquian, to be exact, meaning ‘spiritual and fundamental life force [which is] omnipresent and manifests everywhere: organisms, the environment, events, etc.’ It seemed a fitting title for this painting, and I think it would probably resonate with Audette, as her work certainly evokes some mysterious, dynamic life force.
Acrylic on canvas framed in reclaimed wood
103 x 77 cm
I first encountered the work of Yvonne Audette in 2021 at the exhibition of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 To Now at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. She has been called ‘Australia’s greatest living abstract painter’, and yet few people in the general public know of her incredible work. In my opinion, she should be revered just as much as any of her abstract expressionist contemporaries. Two of her works were hanging next two each other in that exhibition: The Long Walk, 1964 and Cantata No. 8, 1957-58, both oil on plywood. I distinctly recall Cantata No. 8, in particular, catching my eye. I lingered in front of it for quite some time. It clearly made an impression on me. Similarly layered, graffiti-like mark making would later become prevalent in some of my own paintings, this one being the first of that kind. It is a process that I find endlessly fascinating and meditative, as Audette herself has also described it.
I initially titled this painting Manitou but later decided the parenthetical Ode to Yvonne was appropriate given that I felt I owed a great deal of my inspiration to her. Manitou, for what it’s worth, is the name of a small, unincorporated community not far from where I was born in Kentucky where my grandparents had a farm on which I spent many halcyon days of my youth. The word Manitou is Native American in origin, Algonquian, to be exact, meaning ‘spiritual and fundamental life force [which is] omnipresent and manifests everywhere: organisms, the environment, events, etc.’ It seemed a fitting title for this painting, and I think it would probably resonate with Audette, as her work certainly evokes some mysterious, dynamic life force.
Acrylic on canvas framed in reclaimed wood
103 x 77 cm
I first encountered the work of Yvonne Audette in 2021 at the exhibition of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 To Now at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. She has been called ‘Australia’s greatest living abstract painter’, and yet few people in the general public know of her incredible work. In my opinion, she should be revered just as much as any of her abstract expressionist contemporaries. Two of her works were hanging next two each other in that exhibition: The Long Walk, 1964 and Cantata No. 8, 1957-58, both oil on plywood. I distinctly recall Cantata No. 8, in particular, catching my eye. I lingered in front of it for quite some time. It clearly made an impression on me. Similarly layered, graffiti-like mark making would later become prevalent in some of my own paintings, this one being the first of that kind. It is a process that I find endlessly fascinating and meditative, as Audette herself has also described it.
I initially titled this painting Manitou but later decided the parenthetical Ode to Yvonne was appropriate given that I felt I owed a great deal of my inspiration to her. Manitou, for what it’s worth, is the name of a small, unincorporated community not far from where I was born in Kentucky where my grandparents had a farm on which I spent many halcyon days of my youth. The word Manitou is Native American in origin, Algonquian, to be exact, meaning ‘spiritual and fundamental life force [which is] omnipresent and manifests everywhere: organisms, the environment, events, etc.’ It seemed a fitting title for this painting, and I think it would probably resonate with Audette, as her work certainly evokes some mysterious, dynamic life force.