On Maatsuyker there is a lighthouse, which is no longer in operation, 3 keepers cottages in various states of disrepair and several sheds and out buildings. The feeling is that these remnants of colonial occupation and exploration are slowly fading and disappearing back into the dense fabric of vegetation that envelops the rest of the island. It is a place that is frequently battered by fierce weather, which comes and goes with such alarming rapidity. Sometimes the horizon disappears under dark stormy clouds, then only a few hours later it might be still and calm with the sea bathed in delicate silver light.

I was privileged to be on Maatsuyker by myself and had only a satellite phone and VHF radio for emergency use and no other technology to communicate with the world. I rarely heard human sound, although I occasionally passed one of the lighthouse caretakers on the track, I had very little conversation during the entire time. It is interesting to watch what the human mind does when there is so little intellectual stimulus or human interaction. Actually the mind can be quite happy with only the abstract sounds of the natural world for company. I found it that way at least. Since there were no distractions of any kind my mind developed a very close attachment to the natural landscape I was living amongst. My sensory awareness spread further and further afield, constantly alert to changes in sound, patterns of light and movements of creatures. Particular trees or patches of bush became intimate as I visited and drew them day after day. Birds came closer and closer. The tiniest sounds became audible and once I looked up to see two sea eagles hovering just a few metres above my head.

Looking out, there was a constantly changing cloud and seascape of light and air. Looking in to the belly of the island was an entirely different experience. It was cold and dark. At times the dense undergrowth was impenetrable and almost impossible to see beyond. The ground was thick with damp ferns, vines, mosses, leaf litter, riddled with mutton-bird burrows and flecked with patches of luminous green where the sun was able to get through the canopy and light up the ferns. Above was a crowd of twisting trunks of ancient Tea Tree, Banksias, Peppers, Melaleucas and other lumpy trees with red berries that are particularly good for lichens to grow on. Perhaps to some people it may seem like a hostile place - so isolated, so exposed, so far from civilization. I felt so protected by the island. So content crawling around at ground level marveling at the most exquisite fine delicate fragments of lichen that had been dislodged from the branches in the latest storm. It is a landscape that has become inscribed in my mind forever.

Since my stay on Maatsuyker I have continued to explore the mountains in the vicinity of where I live in Southern Tasmania with renewed passion. Although now my bushwalks are in the company of friends, the isolation of such a solitary, emotionally demanding and yet rich experience of living on Maatsuyker has left quite an impact on me. I feel compelled to paint the subtle patterns of light on vegetation, the weaving of grasses, the delicate spots and hairs of lichens. These are very ordinary aspects of the micro landscape that became familiar to me through the time spent sitting still and painting outdoors. For me there is something quite unromantic and beautiful in the ordinariness off what lies at your feet.

The title ‘Walk with me’ comes from a painting by Colin McCahon from 1974. His painting is a sequence of shifting horizons, which suggest the movement through a landscape by both the artist and also the viewer. The work symbolizes the shifts in the weather and coastal tides but is also intended as a metaphor for the passage of human life. For me the phrase is also an invitation to glimpse a moment in a world where the landscape is far stronger than humans. Sort of like tipping the balance back to something that it was before. Maatsuyker is like a place suspended in time past.

In this series of paintings I want to take you for a walk to see the lichens, cutting grass and ferns, all which are often overlooked or disregarded, sometimes even considered weeds even though they are native species, but to see them for what they are as if for the very first time.

Sue Lovegrove
August 2008

The residency on Maatsuyker Island took place during March/April 2007 as part of the Arts Tasmania Natural and Cultural Heritage Residency Program. The residency was assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment.

1962 Born Adelaide, South Australia

EDUCATION
2002 PhD, School of Art, National Institute of the Arts, ANU
1990 Bachelor of Arts (Visual), School of Art, National Institute of the Arts, ANU.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2003-2006 Full time artist
1999-02 Lecturer, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, NSW
1993-00 Sessional Lecturer, School of Art, National Institute of the Arts, ANU
1997 Lecturer/Co-ordinator of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, NT University, Darwin, NT

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Walk With Me, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2006 Vanishing, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2005 Vanishing, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2004 In Pursuit of Clouds, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2002 To hear the earth breathe, Part 3. Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
To hear the earth breathe, Part 2. Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra
To hear the earth breathe, Part 1. Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
1998 Between worlds, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1996 Aediculae, (aGOG) australian Girls Own Gallery, Canberra
1995 From the shadow of a mountain, Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide
From the shadow of a mountain, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1994 In the shadows, (aGOG) australian Girls Own Gallery, Canberra
1992 The unswept floor, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1990 Wall paintings...from the other side, Photospace, Canberra School of Art

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2005 ANL Maritime Art Prize, The Mission to Seafarers Victoria, Mebourne
Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart
Looking South, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart
2004 Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast Art Gallery, QLD
Flemming Muntz Albury Art Prize, Albury Regional Art Gallery, Albury
Blake Prize, touring exhibition, ACU Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne
2003 McGivern Art Prize, Maroondah Art Gallery, VIC
Distant Noises, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
2002 Melbourne International Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2001 31st Alice Prize, Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs,
Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD
2000 Hutchins Art Prize, Hutchins School, Hobart
Triptych, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Jacaranda Drawing Prize, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW
1999 Australian Drawing Biennale, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth and University Art Museum of Queensland, Brisbane
1998 Australian Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
Alice Prize, Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs
Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast Regional Art Gallery
National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery, VIC
1997 Canberra Contemporary Art Fair, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, Canberra
Winter Light, (aGOG) australian Girls Own Gallery, Canberra
Painting Alumni, Photospace Gallery, CSA, Canberra
1996 Speculations 1, ANCA Gallery, Canberra
A Matter of Making, Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra
Collaboration, Gallery Two, Launceston
Swanky Hankies, ANCA Gallery, Canberra
1995 Works on Paper - A Selection, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
Canberra Contemporary Art Fair, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, Canberra
City of Hobart Art Prize, Hobart City Council, Tasmania
1994 Broken Hill Art Prize, Broken Hill Art Gallery, NSW
A Brush with the Bush, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
Home is where the art is, Adelaide Festival Centre Gallery
ACAF4, Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
1992 ACAF3, Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
Richmond Art Prize Exhibition, Richmond Town Hall, Melbourne
1990 Sites Unseen One, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
Stand By, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra

COLLECTIONS
Artbank
ACT Legislative Assembly, Canberra
Broken Hill City Art Gallery
Canberra Museum & Art Gallery
EASS Loans Collection, ANU, Canberra
Grafton Regional Gallery
Hyatt Hotel, Melbourne
KPMG, Canberra
Macquarie Bank Collection
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Parliament House Art Collection,
Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston, TAS
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery

AWARDS & GRANTS
2005 ANL Maritime Art Prize - Finalist
2003 Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship
2002 Canberra Critics Circle Award
2001 ANU Postgraduate Award, PhD Scholarship
2000 New Research Grant, University of Wollongong
1997 Arts ACT Professional Development Grant
1994 Broken Hill Art Prize (work on paper)

SELECTED CITATIONS
Lovegrove, S. 'The Unsolidity of the Ground' Printed Project, Issue 4, 2005
Grishin, S. Artist Like an Archaelogist, Excavating Memory’s Traces, Canberra Times, 14 May, 2004
Barron, S. Lyrical Abstractions go beyond the visual. Canberra Times, 03 April 2002
Maxwell, H. Sue Lovegrove in Australian Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall Gallery, 1998
McFarlane, J. Between, In Between Worlds exhibition catalogue, 1998
Clabburn, A. A talented defence, The Age, 8 July 1998
O’Hehir, A. Aediculae, an invitation to silence. Muse Magazine, No. 158, Feb 1997
Grishin, S. Mood, Memory and Sensuality, Canberra Times, 27 Nov 1996
Gates, M. The Materiality of Memory, in A Matter of Making, CSA Gallery 1996
O’Hehir, A. Speculations 1 & 2, Muse Magazine, No.156, 1996
Neylon, J. Antidote, Adelaide Review, March 1995
Winner shows technical prowess, Broken Hill news 2 Dec 1994
Grishin, S. Fragments of an Ephemeral Past Life, Canberra Times, 5 March 1994
Cousins, K.A. In the Shadows, Muse Magazine, No.129, 1994