Garden blue
Kristen Flynn
335mm x 435mm /
Oil on Fabriano paper
This artwork is available for purchase. Please contact the exhibiting gallery for details
Judge's Commendation
Garden blue is a self-portrait created by printing three etchings in blue oil. I have used images of plants from around my house to highlight the role of our immediate environment in understanding our identity as individuals and as a collective. The third print of a geranium flower is the only print without my face, to remind us that man is nature, and should not be its binary opposite. Garden blue was created using photography, photo-editing software, solar-etching printing plates and a printing press.
Garden Blue is an evocative work, haunting and intriguing in the use of overlaid and intermingled plant and portrait images. Through a complex set of processes, the artist has achieved a satisfying visual balance across the three panels. This is established by the contrast between velvety, dark tones and delicate light shapes, as well as the use of hard, clear edges with those that are feathery soft. This sensual interaction of human and plant forms is suggestive of our relationship to the natural world and provides fascination for the viewer.
About the artist
Flynn creates self-portraits that evoke thoughts and feelings of transcendence and the sublime. She utilises juxtaposition and layering of imagery to produce meaning. Flynn’s printmaking process includes both new and traditional methods.