Human Alchemy by Stacey Conridge
We are all being remade. By the people we love, the losses we carry, the beliefs we build our lives around. This series explores this quiet, relentless transformation — the alchemy of being human.
Painted in oil, the series was made during years of upheaval — extreme weather, a global pandemic, escalating tensions — and are a response to the external noise, influences and the emotions felt during these times. They touch on Stacey’s own journey of finding connection and healing through living with nature and interacting with the wildlife on and around her ‘land for wildlife’ property and celebrate some the qualities and strengths these beautiful creatures embody and symbolise.
At the centre of each painting is a single female figure, wildlife are present and vines wrap around and through these figures, nature not as backdrop but as something entangled with us — holding, growing, occasionally binding. Gold moves through the work too, literal and symbolic at once, alchemy made visible on the surface of the paint.
b. 1965, Port Macquarie, New South Wales
Stacey has developed her technique of oil painting under the tuition of mentor and father-in-law John Beeman. Over the past 25 years, under John’s guidance she has refined her skills in oil painting on traditional hand-crafted rabbit skin gesso panels made in her studio and workshops.
Stacey’s subjects include still life, portraiture, landscapes and the figure. Drawing on inspiration from her natural environment, regular en plein air sessions over the last several years, have provided her an opportunity to evolve a distinctive technique using palette knifes to quickly capture the chosen scene. Stacey’s work features mostly figurative which are quite fetching and beautifully painted with a delicate balance between detail and suggestion. However, the landscapes she paintings also illustrate her versatility whilst living in a beautiful environment she naturally draws her inspiration from her surroundings.
Since taking up residence in the Clarence Valley in 2003 Stacey has become an active member of the art community exhibiting at local and regional galleries and events. She is a member of the Grafton Art Club and for the last ten years has attended weekly life drawing classes and has presented yearly work for the Jacaranda Exhibition where she has been the recipient of several major art prizes including the Bendigo Open in 2015.
In 2016, Stacey received a grant from the Grafton Regional Gallery in partnership with Roads and Maritime services to submit works for The Bridges project year 1, producing paintings of the historic Sportsman Creek bridge at Lawrence and the wooden bridge at Tabulam prior to their demolition (The former work was gifted to the Lawrence Museum and the latter was acquired by the Grafton Regional Gallery). More recently Stacey’s still life painting ‘Brown Onions on white Paper’ was selected for the Coffs Harbour Still Salon and in September, showcasing work from two years of regular en plein air sessions, she held an exhibition at the Grafton Regional Gallery ‘On any Wednesday’. Stacey has exhibited her work at the Red Hill Gallery as her principle gallery since 1997.
Stacey lives and works in the Clarence Valley, New South Wales.
