Next date: Friday, 17 May 2024 | 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Drop in to an Open Studio to learn about the creative practice of Artist in Residence, Ainslie McMahon, and the artworks that she has selected from RMOA’s nationally significant collection to study more closely and then respond to creatively during her four-week residency in the Margaret Olley Art Trust Collection Study Room. Open studios are a unique opportunity to meet an artist and experience first-hand how and why artists create and make.
FREE | Bookings not required
About Ainslie McMahon
Ainslie McMahon is an artist based in Rockhampton on Darumbal Country whose work responds to the natural environment and the effect of nature on the human psyche. McMahon describes her work as being defined by a strong connection to Central Queensland, reflecting a sensitivity to the rhythms of the local landscape, including universal themes of fragility and strength, growth and destruction.
McMahon studied visual art at Central Queensland University and graduated in 2003 with a Diploma of Visual Art, majoring in painting. Since that time McMahon has exhibited widely in regional Queensland and facilitated numerous community art workshops in Queensland and Northern Territory. She has undertaken artistic residencies at various primary schools in Rockhampton. McMahon also created and presented a weekly preschool art program at Rockhampton Art Gallery called Messy Mondays, as well as community workshops and STEAM programs at Rockhampton Art Gallery.
McMahon's practice involves a balance between intuitive mark-making and careful deliberation. She says, "I try to discover possibilities, rather than force the painting to a preconceived conclusion. Colour choice and expressive mark making are important to me. Building up layers, and scratching back to reveal what is below creates an opportunity for the unexpected to reveal itself, and allows me to find my own visual language."
Image: A Sensory Landscape 2021. Courtesy of the artist
This Artist in Residence is generously supported in partnership with Haymans.