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Fern's new life draws new interest

05/Dec/2011

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NZ-born Perth artist Fern Petrie. Picture: Marcus Whisson NZ-born Perth artist Fern Petrie. Picture: Marcus Whisson

UPROOTING to another country can draw you in unexpected directions.

When accomplished artist Fern Petrie left her native Auckland in New Zealand for Perth five years ago with just one month's notice (it was for her husband's work as a geophysicist), she had to adjust to a new life in a new landscape.

“Moving to a new place is always difficult, because you have to start networking and finding new friends,” Fern shared.

“I didn't produce any artwork for the first two years…it was such a change,” Fern said.

However, a job at an art supplies store set Fern - a proficient carver and print-maker with an extensive list of solo and group exhibitions to her credit - on a new creative journey.

“I'd never done any painting, but I worked opposite the oil painting stand, and kept looking at those oil paints everyday and then finally, I tried it, and felt a real connection with colour, which I haven't really experienced a lot of.

“In Maori design, all the colours are from the land, so you've got your ochres, browns, blacks and so on, but the really bright colours - the renaissance kind of colours - are only something I've started working on in the past couple of years.

“And in New Zealand, it's always rainy or windy and changeable, but in Perth, it's just bright and sunny all the time and I think that brightness has come through in the paintings.”

Fern's latest exhibition, Cabinet of Curiosities, is a collection of 40 oil paintings, gouache and sculpture works inspired by photographs from the Victorian era, and designed to entice viewers into a world of mystery and spur their own inner curiosities.

At the heart of Fern's body-of-work is a cultural collision of her combined Maori heritage - strengthened while studying at Te Toi Hou, Auckland University's Maori arts department - and her European ancestry.

“I learnt how symbolism plays an important part in Maori art…it's important to know about your family history and cultural heritage,” she said.

“When I went to Europe, I saw another side, which was really exciting too.

“I try to put the two elements together, but these latest works have less of the Maori design work in them and just more of the detail, as I don't think there's enough artwork out there which is based on a love of detail.”

Cabinet of Curiosities is showing at Murano & Gullotti, Subiaco, until December 10.

Emilia Vranjes

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