Valentina Palonen embraces a highly intuitive approach to oil painting in which organic forms often dissolve into flecks of abstraction and fields of colour. Combining landscape and figuration, for her latest exhibition, the artist has sought to capture the feeling or atmosphere emitted by a particular location by employing a liberal and emotively driven approach to colour. Strongly influenced by the aesthetics of watercolour, in these new works Palonen has shifted her focus from panoramic views of landscape to more intimate croppings. Focusing on solitary figures flanked by thin washes of paint, as well as groupings in natural settings, her works might evoke either youthful revelry, rites of passage, or magical escapism.
Gould Galleries
3 to 26 August, 2017
Melbourne
