Parker, Deb
Artist Statement
Debbie’s landscape paintings to date have focused on nature’s design, form, gesture, colour, and texture. Debbie uses strong colour contrasts to suggest natural forms and lighting. Her figurative work has borrowed techniques from these earlier works to give her new work a lively action that talks about human activity. Her expressionist approach offers a snapshot or vision of her experiences with what she sees – from the crisscross patterns of light filtering through trees, to the feeling of the energy a windswept cliff, or the ripples and splashes of water as swimmers enjoy its cooling effect.
Art has always been an important part of Debbie’s life – since childhood she’s been immersed in painting, drawing and appreciating art. She is influenced by such artists as Reinis Zusters, Margaret Woodward, William Dobell, Alberto Giacometti, Vincent Van Gogh, and Edgar Degas. Her first formal art training began in the early 1990s while living in Canberra. There, for four years, Debbie attended evening classes in painting through Open Access at the Canberra Institute of Art. She was mostly interested in the very special and constantly different effects possible with water-based media - allowing the water and the media to accidentally merge or resist each other to create textures and lines often found naturally. She started with transparent watercolour and was influenced by Chinese silk painting.
Debbie exhibited her landscapes for several years in Sydney and Canberra until moving back to Queensland in 1994 with her family. She has since exhibited at the Brisbane Institute of Art (BIA), and received a highly commended in the d’Arcy Doyle landscape prize in 2006 as well as participated in many local art competitions. Last year she exhibited her first solo exhibition “Memories Of Trees”. Most recently she exhibited in a group show at The Wesley Hospital and some group shows at the Martin Galleries. The past three years have seen her spend more time painting in her home-based studio and studying life drawing and figurative painting. She balances graphic design work with her painting and drawing.
