RENOWNED Melbourne artist Helen Maudsley says that at 90 years of age, she can reflect on many mistakes she’s made in her life.
“I must have done some things right, but there does seem to be an endless list of times when I think, how could I have been so stupid? “ she said.
“I regret idiot mistakes, although it has made me more charitable towards others when I see their idiot mistakes!”
As an artist it’s not hard to find instances where she’s “done things right”.
Helen says one of the highlights came four or five years ago when the British Museum approached her to acquire some of her drawings.
“It’s the greatest compliment I ever got,” she said. “It was a very affirming thing for me.
“They took about 20 pieces – no one here had taken much notice of them.”
Victorians will have a chance to view 30 of her most recent paintings and drawings this month when her exhibition, Our Knowing and Not Knowing, opens at the Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, at Federation Square.
Helen’s images use a distinctive visual language characterised by abstract shapes and symbols. She refers to her work as visual essays.
“For me, looking at art is an engagement – you get engaged with what’s happening and it makes you grow.
“I write visual essays and people still say to me sometimes that if they don’t get it, there’s nothing to get.
“One thing I love is ambiguity; it’s a great thing that art uses.”
Helen practises every day and has been teaching painting and drawing at the Centre for Adult Education since 1967.
Her own formal art training started at the National Gallery Art School, and then during the 1960s she completed a Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts with the Victorian College of the Arts.
Since 1954 she has exhibited every two to three years in Melbourne – at Standfield Gallery from 1979-1991 and more recently at Niagara Galleries.
The NGV’s Ian Potter Centre exhibition opens November 17. Our Knowing and Not Knowing will be one of five solo exhibitions that are part of NGV’s summer program, with Del Kathryn Barton, Mel O’Callaghan, Louise Paramour and Gareth Sansom the other featured artists.
Helen Maudsley’s exhibition runs until March 12 and entry is free.
