MICHELLE HUNGERFORD
Michelle Hungerford is a full-time practicing artist who lives and works in Tamworth, New South Wales. Landscapes are her preferred genre and she is inspired by the New England region. Michelle commenced her formal Art Education in 1987 when she enrolled in a Fine Arts course at Tamworth TAFE. Later, she returned to study and in 2003 graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and was the recipient of the University Medal.
In 2006 Michelle held her first international solo show at New Hall, Cambridge University and in 2009, she had her second solo show at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge UK. Michelle has also exhibited widely in regional and commercial galleries and has been a finalist in many art prizes including Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting, Norville Art Prize, Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize and the Gallipoli Art Prize. In 2018 she was the winner of the Defiance Gallery Award, Paddington Art Show.
Michelle’s work is held in many private and public collections in, Australia, UK, Europe and America.
“How to express in paint your experience of a country that is full of such ancient, rich and varied culture?
My first visit to India was a powerful sensory experience and I felt that this deserved more than me simply making a pastiche or trying to replicate photographs.
My usual approach to painting is to stand before the canvas and just paint, allowing my marks and colour to take me back to the place or the experience. The paintings starts to reveal their stories, sometimes slowly sometimes very quickly. At first it was marks resembling Sanskrit, the ancient Indian script. I loved the energy, rhythm and curves of Sanskrit as well as the more modern Hindi. Then bit by bit came surfaces and patina of buildings, beautiful stone sculptures of deities, offerings of brightly coloured marigolds, block printed fabrics, repeat patterns, weddings, fireworks, kites, birds and finally when all the works were finished I had realized many of my vivid and varied memories of India.
Hopefully imbedded in each work is a little of the mystery and wonder of India. ”