Jude Rae is as interested in faces as she is in gas bottles and airports with her work crossing genres from portraiture to still life and architectural interiors.
Amongst the very few artists to have won the Portia Geach Memorial Award for portraiture twice, she was also awarded the Bulgari Art Award last year with her painting ‘SL 359’, a meditative still life.
She has exhibited in over 45 solo shows across Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the US, has been involved in many more group shows and her work is held in major public and private collections across Australia and internationally.
We talk about growing up in an artistic home (her father, David Rae, was a painter whose work is held by the Art Gallery of NSW), the challenges of portrait commissions and illusion and materiality in painting. She also talks about her interest in the viewer looking beyond the narrative a painting might suggest and tells of how she came about painting those gas bottles!
You can see a short video taken on the day of the interview on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel (and below)
Upcoming events
- ‘Jude Rae: A Space of Measured Light’ Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, ACT, 18 August to 15 October 2017
Links to things and people we talk about on the show:
- Jude Rae
- Jude Rae at Jensen Gallery
- David Rae at the Art Gallery of NSW
- Frank Watters
- Cy Twombly
- Cy Twombly’s Le Panto Cycle (YouTube)
- Diego Velazquez
- Portia Geach memorial award
- Professor Ian Chubb AC
- Bulgari Art Award
- Jude Rae at the Drill Hall Gallery
- Video of Jude Rae talking with Maria Stoljar in her studio – Talking with Painters YouTube channel (below)
‘SL359’ 2016, oil on linen, 1530 x 1220mm, winner Bulgari Art Award 2016
‘Self Portrait (the year my husband left )’ 2008, acrylic and oil on linen, 153 x 198cm, 2008 Portia Geach Memorial Award winner
‘SL 341’ 2014, oil on linen, 500 x 540mm
‘Sarah Peirse’, 2014, oil on linen, 710 x 660mm, Archibald finalist 2014
‘Dr Ian Chubb’ 2011, oil on linen, 900 x 1200mm
‘SL 315’ 2013, oil on linen, 1220 x 1370mm
‘Interior 371 (Foyer II)’, 2017, oil on linen, 1500mm x 2600mm (left); ‘Interior 370 (Foyer I)’, oil on linen, 2600 x 1980mm (right)
‘T5 (Heathrow #247)’, 2010, oil on linen, 180 x 240cm
‘Interior 278 (Munich I), 2011, oil on linen, 1550 x 1980mm
Marvelous interview. The artist is a fascinating subject, with so much humour, knowledge and experience. I would have loved to be able to listen for longer.
It is very interesting to note ts247(Heathrow) looks like an advanced sharper version of Jude’s stilllifes they are as I see them a confluence of shapes and exacting compositions i suspect they are highly manipulated like her still lifes wonderful interview thank you!