Margaret Norris

contemporary Australian artist painter
abstract paintings and photograms

brief biography, working methods, examples of large and small artworks and contact details

Abstract
Landscape
Paintings

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Brief biography

Margaret is an Alumnus of London University of the Arts, and graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Arts campus in 1999 with a BA (Hons.) degree in Fine Arts. After several years living and working abroad, she returned home to Australia in 2000 and now lives in Sydney, Australia.

Her abstract paintings are based on natural phenomena: Landscape, cellular structure & microcosmic images. Margaret’s interest lies in macroscopic versus microscopic duality. Her paintings use light & colour to enhance natural structures from the world around us, sometimes viewed and enhanced through electron microscopy. The scale of such cellular activity is magnified to massive proportions in order that the final paintings can measure up to two metres squared. The activity then becomes intensely dramatic in colour and gesture, the forms cascade through their picture planes which remain flat and yet all encompassing, reminiscent of colour field painting.

Alongside her paintings, Margaret makes photograms (unique photographic images with no camera or negative involved). When at University she researched the visual effects created by growing micro-organisms on photographic paper. The treated paper is used to grow the microbes in the same way as a petri dish containing nutrients is used in laboratories to develop cultures. These photograms form beautiful works in their own right as well as providing the source material and inception of larger painted works.

Her works are held in Private Collections in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States.

Working methods - paintings

The seemingly abstract images are actually based on naturally occurring forms found in the environment. Margaret Norris draws inspiration from many diverse sources: the landscape as we know it and what the Artist refers to as ‘the secret or hidden landscape’, cellular structures which can only be accessed through the use of new technologies, such as electron microscopy or optical & thermal imaging. Surface, colour & light are vital considerations in the evolution of these unique paintings.

To achieve the colour and luminosity she desires, the Artist becomes alchemist, grinding natural ochre and pigments into diverse media in order to produce glowing pigmented glazes. The resultant paint is then layered onto the canvas over a period, building intriguing images, rich in surface and translucency

Gallery

Divide

Conciliation

Kinetic Flow

Static Boundary

Oscillations

Infinite Cascades

Microcosm II

Secret Garden

Static Boundary II

Sanctuary

Channel Country I

Channel Country II

Kinetic Flow II

Paradigm Drift II

Paradigm Drift III

Microscopic Landscape I Sold

Microscopic Landscape II Sold

Working methods - photograms

A photogram is a unique photograph produced entirely in the darkroom. There is no camera or negative involved. The photograms followed on from the Artist’s interest and research into nature & science for her paintings. In turn, the photograms have enriched and informed her paintings.

Margaret conducted experimentation into the visual effects produced by growing micro-organisms directly on treated paper in the same way as a Petri dish containing nutrients is used in scientific laboratories to develop cultures. The unique & visually stunning images are a result of these natural phenomena

The artist alludes to the creation process when she entitled this series of photograms ‘microbes exposed’. The microbes quietly interacted with the nutrients contained in the photographic emulsion for some time in complete darkness, until being subjected to an explosive microsecond of light, prior to undergoing the usual photographic colour processing in the dark room to preserve the image.

Photograms - "Microbes Exposed" series

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All images: 23x30cm/9x12in, presented in acid free mounting ready for framing. Making the overall size of 36x44cm/14x17”
Price AU$200 each

Contact details

Margaret V Norris
T 02 9651 1242
F 02 9651 1667
M 0408 699 569
E possums_au@yahoo.com

Curriculum Vitae

1996-1999

1995-1996

1995

1993-1994

1989-1992

1987-1989

1983-1987

Byam Shaw School of Art BA (Hons.) Degree in Fine Art [University of the Arts, London]

City Literary Institute London Certificate Art & Design [Middlesex University]

Commenced full time education in art as a mature student following a career in business administration

Chelsea & Westminster Adult Education, London, Painting classes

Ku-Ring-Gai Art Centre, Drawing, Painting and Ceramic classes Sydney, Australia

North Lake College, Dallas, Texas USA, Drawing & Painting classes

Private tuition with Betty Morgan who was a well-known portrait artist and teacher in Sydney, Australia

Selected solo and group exhibitions

2009 Solo Exhibition, Marie-France Salon & Gallery, West Pymble, NSW

2009 Solo Exhibition, “Bar Amalfi”, Ramsgate Beach, NSW

2009 Northern Expressions Group Exhibition, Parliament House, Sydney

2009 55th Annual Hunter’s Hill Art Exhibition, NSW

2006 - 2008 Northern Expressions Group Exhibitions, NSW

2004 - 2009 Ku-Ring-Gai Art Society Group Exhibitions, NSW

2007 Arcadian Artists Open Studio Weekend, Galston, NSW

2003 Finalist, 52nd Blake Prize, Sydney

2003 TAP Gallery, “Real Refusés”, Sydney

2003 TAP Gallery, Group Exhibition, Sydney

2003 49th Annual Hunter’s Hill Art Exhibition, NSW

2001 Solo Exhibition, Alta Gallery, Sydney

2000 Solo Exhibition, Zella Gallery, London, UK

1999 Fenton Art Trust, Recent Graduates, London, UK

1999 Degree Graduation Show Byam Shaw School of Art - University of the Arts London, UK

1999 Chelsea Art Society Open Exhibition, London

1999 Group show Concourse Gallery, Archway, London, UK

1999 “Halfway to Highgate”, Waterlow Park, London

1998 Concourse Gallery, Byam Shaw School of Art, London, UK

1998 Chelsea Art Society, Open Exhibition, Chelsea, London, UK

1997 “Gone”, Concourse Gallery, London, UK

1996 Graduation Show, Art & Design Certificate, City Literary Institute, London, UK

Memberships

Ku-Ring-Gai Art Society
Hornsby Art Society
Northern Expressions Artist Collective
University of the Arts London Alumni