Barb Hodgens
Float
26 February - 09 March 2025
G4
Opening Night
Friday 28 February | 6 - 8 pm
Barb Hodgens is a painter who works from her home studio in Melbourne, Australia. She received Bachelor in Fine Art in Painting from Monash University and a Postgraduate Degree in Sculpture from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Barb explores themes of nature, capturing beauty and magical worlds of renewed possibility. She finds inspiration in simple, every day beauty; daily walks with her dog, flowers in suburban gardens, bush paths along the Merri Creek and South Gippsland beaches where she regularly visits.
Flowers are her primary motif, but inspiration comes from a diverse range of sources that include fragments of personal memory, meditation, Japanese and Indian art, sacred geometry, antique botanical drawings, and the elements: air, water and sun.
Barb works intuitively and is led by feeling, trusting the painting to evolve organically. Predominantly working with acrylic on board and paper, she delights in exploring colour and textural delicacy and layering detailed white linework - which she calls ‘veiling’.
Perpetually frustrated by the limitations of the two-dimensional surface and the need to access deeper into the work, Barb uses veiling to create the illusion of depth. Perhaps this is informed by her background in sculpture. Graphic elements float between absence and presence, real and imagined and invite the viewer to consider what can’t be seen.
For Barb, the process and practise of painting is just as important as the finished work. Her creative muse comes once she finds stillness. Repetition and intricate detailing are akin to a spiritual practise. Studio time, becoming a form of therapy.
It’s Barbs intention and hope that her work, both embodies and evokes contemplation and a sense of presence. She seeks to provide a source of optimism, wonderment, and inspiration. Each piece invites the viewer into a meditative space of refection and connection. The veiling is a portal to an almost devotional object
Artist Bio
Barb Hodgens explores themes of nature, capturing beauty through her unique creative lens. Flowers are her primary motif, and inspiration comes from a diverse range of sources, that include fragments of personal memory, meditation, Japanese and Indian art, sacred geometry, antique botanical drawings, and the elements: mainly air, water and sun. Graphic elements float between absence and presence, real and imagined and invite the viewer to consider what can’t be seen. The veiling is a portal to an almost devotional object.
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: Route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway Ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
