Lorraine Biggs is a former West Australian artist now living on the North East coast of Tasmania. The headland location of her home and studio overlooks the sea to the North and there is a steep landmass to the West. The clouds that stream across Lorraine’s outlook generally move from West to East and with every passing moment they change shape, colour and morph into something else. Living on the lee side of the island, the afternoon light is often soft and subdued. Clouds are suffused with mauve shadows and golden highlights.

The weather patterns at this latitude can create beautifully choreographed layers of different clouds that scud across the sky. They change with the seasons, the zephyrs, the gales and sometimes the strange stillness and peculiar light of the East coast of Tasmania. This body of work explores the nature of just some of those clouds in their various forms.

Lorraine stated,
“The infinite permutations of the dissolving and disappearing clouds provide an endless source to paint. The works are a physical experience of my meditation on colour and form through cloud movement. For some, the significance of clouds resides in them being metaphors for heightened states of consciousness. The observation of clouds certainly makes one reflective and the absorption in thought held simply by moving colour and shape can be an uplifting experience. We live in such a complex world that I hope that these works can be seen as an escape or antidote to that complexity.”

Mesmerised by the chameleon qualities of clouds, Lorraine has strived to capture something of their ephemeral beauty, and has succeeded brilliantly. She has produced these evocative images using oil paint on canvas or charcoal and pastel chalk on hemp/recycled paper. This is Lorraine’s eighth solo exhibition and she has work in several public collections including the Art Gallery of WA, Curtin University, Ian Bernadt Collection, University of Tasmania, Artbank, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (UWA) and several others.

*prices valid 2002