Tasmania’s stark, yet striking Midlands is captured beautifully in the upcoming exhibition of Olivia Moroney’s, Out of the Weather, which also explores a dramatic use of wallpaper.
From her studio at Jericho, Olivia has a ringside view of her beloved Midlands in all its climatic moods: “It looks so different depending on the weather. And it is the interplay between the sun and the clouds and the landscape that I really love to bring to life in my landscapes,” Olivia tells us. But, in Out of the Weather, a stunning collection of etchings and charcoal drawings, Olivia adds another dimension – shelter.
Highlighting the “need for shelter for both man and livestock,” Olivia recounts the motifs of trees and undergrowth as they offer vital protection from the elements. In her charcoal drawing, Taking Heed, focus falls on a hedge of pine trees in the distance. But it is her etching, Where We Find Shelter, with gumtrees looming large as they stand guard, that captures attention. It has also been replicated on Wallpaper, with this large image taking centre stage in the exhibition, demonstrating how all her works can take on this new adaptation.
At just 29 years of age, Olivia is one of Tasmania’s rapidly emerging artistic talents. She is also on a mission to record the changing landscape of the Midlands: “As agricultural practices change, so does our landscape. Hedgerows and stands of pine trees that once dotted the landscape are removed as we embrace larger scale farming. I want to capture these motifs before they are lost forever.”
Olivia Moroney’s Out of the Weather Exhibition opens on Friday 15 October.
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