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Janine Whitling
Painter/Installation Artist (Bucasia, QLD)

I was born in Beirut Lebanon, with little memory of my early years, we moved to Melbourne Australia when I was 4 years old. Living in the suburbs of Doncaster, life as an immigrant was difficult and at times traumatic. I was compelled to reject my heritage in order to fit in with my new surroundings, and as with most people in similar positions, spent the next 30 years trying to find who I was. This important environment allowed me the opportunity to look inward to find this answer rather than focus on external sources to define myself. It has also allowed me to find that people are the same no matter what sex they are, what land they come from, or what beliefs they have been instilled with.

I graduated from the Southern School of Natural Medicine as a Naturopath in 1997 but after many years found that this mode of practice did not suit me as I wished to work with the energetic cause of illness rather than focus on the physical manifestation.

In 2001 I moved to regional Mackay and it was here that I returned to my love of Art. In art I could express from my soul. In Art I felt peace. In Art I feel the gentleness of life.

In 2009 I completed my Masters of Contemporary Art through the University of Tasmania's School of Visual and Performing Arts and it has paved my way into the beautiful world of art in my daily life.

I classify myself as an abstract expressionist. I work in an almost instinctual way, with acrylic and other media that will allow for texture and depth on the canvas. I love the notion that there are things 'unseen' behind the surface of the paint. I like to build texture and layer using a variety of media, not conforming to preconceptions of material use.

Colour is almost always chosen intuitively, trusting the impulse of my hands and emotions. My work progresses organically by focusing my inner senses on a subject and allowing the inspiration to unfold creatively. I trust that the piece speaks to me as I connect with it, and feel its progression to finality until a peace settles over my being. In this way I can intuitively respond to the point of its completion.

I do not ask my work to send a message to the viewer, nor try to make a statement with it. And so it is that with my work I wish to transport the viewer not to somewhere new outside of themselves, but to somewhere known and possibly forgotten, a space deep within. What I hope for is that the viewer may find the point within their own inner being, a space at which the artwork may speak to them without language. In this way they can find their own meaning within the work and not necessarily the meaning that I have held when constructing it.

For information on how to purchase or commission Janine's work contact her below or call 0413 550 944

Contact Janine Whitling
Visit Janine's Website

QUALIFICATIONS
Master of Contemporary Arts, University of Tasmania
Finalist 2010 59th Blake Prize, National Prize Australia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Origins, DWP Gallery, Level 1/15 Peel Street, Mackay, Qld

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 The 59th Blake Prize, NAS, Darlinghurst NSW, Finalist
2009 Subject Matters, Art space, Mackay
2009 Best Friends, Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania
2009 UTAS Graduate Exhibition, Central Queensland University, Mackay, Qld 2010 Art On Show, Mackay Show Association, Mackay, Qld