Great Southern Cove

Great Southern Cove - painted by Kathryn Fenton is part of an ongoing series of great ocean cliffs both in Australia and abroad.

The ideas germinated from a collection of images of the Cornwall coast where these dramatic lofty cliffs plunged into these dazzling azure seas and where the giant chasms between these headlands are connected by a myriad of steep winding tracks and bridges.

So although the typography of the land and its interconnecting shapes are fascinating in itself, the real wow factor is how the landscape literally pulses with energy, and that's due to the violet/blues and yellow/greens and sometimes orange/reds which are opposite colours on the colour spectrum chart which projects such vibrancy.

Great Southern Cove pays homage to Hallett Cove in South Australia.  Not unlike the sunny Cornwall Coast, this cove sits at the base of equally dramatic cliffs accessed by a long steep stairway.

Painted in acrylic and mixed media, this abstracted work aims to highlight the dramatic perspectives of the landscape and energy of the typography with mark making materials.

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My formal art training began at Queensland College of Art studying Visual Communication and Graphic Design as well as filmmaking. I later won a scholarship at the Australian Film and Television School and pursued a filmmaking career for 18 years and finally returned with a passion for visual arts.
During my art/painting practice in these past 30 years I have experimented with many mediums and in all genres, but what continues to hold my interest and where I consistently revisit is the landscape and objects within the landscape. I also like to explore the concept of dual worlds where order and chaos compete with each other - where the representational morphs into elements of abstraction.
A lot of my figurative landscapes are allegorical set against sweeping abstracted skies which set the stage for the drama to unfold. My work practise finds my doing a lot of research and preliminary paint sketches and the ideas may come from a piece of poetry, mythology, ancient history or from my own photography. In recent years I have been preoccupied with 18th century Baroque and Rococo eras.
I have been fortunate to have been selected as a finalist in the National Still Life Art Prize for the past 6 years as well as winning landscape and portrait awards in the Coffs Harbour and Sawtell Art Prizes over the past 12 years. In 2019 my painting was featured in the Television Series, The Block.