Angela Norris

About Angela Norris

My artistic pursuits are fired by my keen interest in diverse painting techniques. The contemporary painters of the twentieth century are therefore an influence.

The appeal of mixed media sets the exciting challenge to produce a distinctive quality where the viewer sustains an element of surprise and fascination

Inspiration is born of constant attention to fresher techniques and application. A combination of materials allows me to demonstrate emotional, exciting, compulsive expressions by applying layers over the surface. By adapting to fragments of certain techniques practised by modern Masters, I have established an identity for my personal style.

Bringing together a collection of materials to create a visual solution can be perplexing, or quite spontaneous. I have a theme, for which I seek to express, where possible, the characteristics of collage. I am buoyed by the notion that Picasso, amongst his many painting styles, experimented with collage in the early 1900's.

I enjoy the expression of Jackson Pollock, which permits the pysicality of painting for the effects of the paint itself – a liberating and joyous task I undertook to produce "Black Poles". I sought a diametrically opposite technique to Pollock - to an end, a softly blending coloured background, superimposed by rigid and free floating strips of black.

Non-representational and non-academic painting has allowed me a style that is mostly "abstract-expressionism". I indulge the techniques of sgraffito, ("Passing Moment"), glazing, ("Beneath the Surface", "Bush Fear", "Cathedral"), hard-edge, ("Stellar Flash"), collage, especially incorporating textiles, ("Division", "Impressions of the Bay", "Sea of Serpents", "100 Collins Street") and metals, ("Dreams of a Journey, "Shield of the Spirit") monotype, (Villers-Bretonneux 1913") and impasto, ("Tribal Dance," "Finding Water", "Stellar Flash"). The existence of glass in the mix will be further exploited, as in "Dreams of a Journey" and "1912-The Aftermath".

Additional influences are the colour experimentation of Matisse; Paul Klee ("The Twittering Machine")and Joan Miro, their lively coloured, distinctive, witty symbolism. Kandinsky's bold abstract statements, and Gustav Klimpt, with his extremities of realism and abstract patterns of humanity.

My future works will comprise interpretation of Original Man associating with today's culture, as expressed in "Finding Water". The open question of our ancestry is a point of fascination to be investigated and visualised. I see the contrast of ancient images in contemporary design.

Further, a study of elements beneath the water surface – light, texture, life, colour and contemporary identification of Australian style in landscape, as in "Bush Fear".

For more on Angela Norris see
www.angelanorris.com