Painting Place is an exhibition depicting and evoking a place – the farm and bushland on which the artist grew up on – instilling emotion and memory for place, not just for herself but also for the viewer and their own personal memory of a place. This ‘sense of place’ is a constant for Kemp and is a lens through which she views her paintings in relationship with the intimacy of the landscape she inhabits.
As it wasn’t possible to be in this place for the greater part of 2020, the planned creation of this painting series shifted from working on site in the landscape to receiving images for source material from family. This in turn changed the view of place from the artist’s, to viewing this place externally through the perspective of her parents’ eyes.
This exhibition is a close intimate response evoking memories, moments and personal nostalgia.
Anthea Kemp, Feeling of before place, 2020 (detail), oil on canvas, 57 x 46cm.