Elli Schlunke
PAINTINGS
I've always painted. In the last year or so I've been working on my Irreversible Tipping Point series, which is my response to the forest fires of 2019, as well as the devastation of the Amazon forests, which I see as a huge threat to our survival. I've also started on another obsession, with some bunya studies. A few years ago I was a bit obsessed with painting faces. I loved doing the Gum Zen series, playing with photos with patterns made by gum leaves. I've also painted a few murals, some quite large, but I prefer the excitement of starting on a fresh blank canvas, or indeed a new start over the top of an old painting, which always brings nice surprises when the underpainting shows through.
My studio often gets too crammed with sculptural works in progress for me to set up the easel, but when I do, I love the different experience and get really into a series while the ideas keep building up.
3 metre-wide diptych commissioned, 2022-3. Made a big change to the whitish room where it lives.
Approaching fire threatens forest Part of a series "Irreversible Tipping Point," in 2020 after the huge fires everywhere.
Is it too late for us? This is my favourite of the series.
Forest fires are destroying the Lungs of the Earth
A large painting about burning forest, which was recognised by my then10-year-old grand-daughter. About 1800 square.
Soggy Cows was a subject suggested to me during a very wet week. The cows failed to materialise though. Just the Sog.
A large painting showing one part of the ever-changing light shows I see at home thanks to my beloved bunyas.
Bunyas - sacred to our First Peoples and to me
1800 x 1200. It lightens and brightens up my living room. This series has been exhibited twice and quite a few have sold now.
1800 x 1200, acrylic. One of my favourites, NFS
763 mm square, acrylic on canvas. NFS
910 x 910, acrylic. I painted this over an unsuccessful landscape - and stopped after whiting out the background, as I loved the way the underpainting worked. Sold.
510 x 1530, acrylic. It wasn't till I blew up the image that I noticed the buds - the leaves were only a small part of the overall original photo. Sold.
755 x 1015, acrylic. Two friends unwittingly imitating each other while watching a bonfire from a hillside. NFS.
1200 x 1800, acrylic, the result of 2 friends being hams at a fancy dress party. NFS
915 x 915, acrylic. One of my mentors. NFS