Kirsten Hocking
Daglish, WA
Kirsten's work uses the symbolic language of plants and flowers to explore people’s relationships to beauty, impermanence, relationships and the natural world.
MessageKirsten Hocking’s richly coloured and contemplative oil paintings reference her deep appreciation of the botanical world. She uses plants symbolically, as a metaphor for life, painting what she sees with accurate detail. By pushing her technical ability to describe the delicate curls of a leaf or the hidden throat of a flower convincingly enough that you can almost smell its perfume, Kirsten invites you to step into the painting with her, inhabit its space and engage with its subject in thoughtful reflection.
Kirsten is a Perth artist and educator. She holds a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts from Edith Cowan University and a Graduate Diploma of Education from The University of Western Australia. She has taught visual arts to hundreds of students at secondary schools across Perth and at Tresillian Arts Centre. Prior to teaching, Kirsten worked as a complementary health professional across a variety of disciplines, including clinical aromatherapy and natural perfumery. These disciplines greatly impact her world view and inform her artistic practice.
Kirsten participates regularly in group exhibitions and has been the grateful recipient of numerous awards, including The Francesca Nelson Award (PLC, 2023), The People’s Choice Award (Claremont Art Awards, 2016) and the Louise Macfie Prize (Edith Cowan University, 2013).
Statement
In my still life paintings, I use carefully observed texture, form and colour to invite the viewer to look closely and be drawn into the quiet stillness present within the artwork. Coming from an aromatherapy and perfumery background, I am interested in flowers and plants and the complex symbolic language that has built up around them over centuries, across many cultures. I use the formal conventions of traditional still life oil painting to explore notions of beauty, impermanence, relationships, environmental exploitation and the links between the human-made and natural worlds.
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