Fine Arts Collection- Alumnae Artists

Geraldine Wheeler (1943 - ) Alumna 1960

Title: Mother and Child with Australian Native Flowers 1 Medium: gouache stencil painting on black Stonehenge paper Date: 19 Dimensions: 70 x 52 cm

Collection category: alumnae artist Purchased in 2017 from the artist

Dr Geraldine Wheeler is an alumna of Brisbane Girls Grammar School. As a minister of religion and theology , Dr Wheeler’s work speaks of narratives from the Christian tradition. Her interest has long been the intersection between art and religion and she is the founder of the group Visionaries, a network of visual artists from the Uniting Church and other Christian Churches in South East Queensland, Australia. This gouache stencil painting was created for an exhibition by the artists of Visionaries at the Australian Catholic University and Mueller College, Rothwell, in 2010. The preparation for the exhibition began with Dr Lindsay Farrell leading the group of artists to view the art with Christian religious themes in the Queensland Art Gallery, with the aim that these works, dating from early Renaissance times to the present, would provide inspiration for the exhibition as a contemporary response to these works. ‘ Because my gouache stencil paintings are done on black paper, I was inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting, Madonna and Child Surrounded by Roses, by Jan van Kessell the Elder (for the flowers) and by the Circle of Simon de Vos (for the Madonna and Child image). This painting has a black background. With my works based on biblical themes, I aim to translate them into Australian settings, hence the use of Australian native flowers to surround the Mother and Child figures, which I dared to paint as Indigenous Australians, ’ Dr Geraldine Wheeler.

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