A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattl… — artist's signature A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. — edge view A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. — detail A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. — shown hanging
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A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle.
A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle.
A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle.
A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattl… — artist's signature
A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. — edge view
A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. — detail
A woman in a long silk yellow dress and red hair, reaching towards a large hedge of bright yellow wattle. — shown hanging
Photography by Lauren Starr 122 Artworks Sold

Ellen Randell Dreams of Wattle - 90cm Edition Ed. 4 of 12

Photograph, Paper (Requires Framing)

90cm (W) x 70cm (H) x 0.4cm (D)

Signed Certificate of Authenticity
A$980

Artwork Description

This piece was a finalist in the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2023

Part of the 'Luminaries, Women of the Goldfields' series
I think of Ellen every time the wattle blooms. She was 20 and on her way home from Maryborough with her fiancé when she stopped to pick wattle from the side of the road. It’s the last thing she’d ever see. Her fiancé shot her in the back of the head and then shot himself. He was deep in gambling debt and had planned to take his own life, and had written a suicide letter to Ellen. I can only guess as to why he changed his mind and killed her too. Not wanting her to have a life without him? What a disgusting human. Ellen is a 19th century victim of domestic violence, but she’s so much more. A young girl in a new land with her whole life ahead and a love of yellow flowers. I want people to remember her name.

Photographed on Dja Dja Wurrung land

Exhibition Print Size (L): 120x90cm
Edition of 6 +1AP
Unframed: $1700

Also Available in:

XL 140x105cm
Edition of 1 +1AP
Unframed: $3200

M 90x67.5cm
Edition of 12+1AP
Unframed: $980

Artist Bio
Photo of Lauren Starr
Lauren Starr 142 artworks | 83 Sold

Lauren Starr is an Australian photo-media artist whose work explores women’s stories through history, folklore, fairytale, and the Australian landscape. Drawing on colonial histories, personal ancestry, and mythic archetypes, she creates narrative works that reimagine the past through a contemporary lens.

Working with staged photography, painterly textures, and digital compositing, Starr constructs richly layered images that sit between reality and myth. Her practice is particularly concerned with memory, inheritance, belonging, and the ways women’s lives become embedded within landscape.

Recent bodies of work have explored female narratives from the Victorian goldfields, acts of re-wilding and reclamation, and the enduring relationship between women, story, and place.

Starr is the recipient of the 2022 Bluethumb Art Prize (Photography Category and Grand Prize). Her work has been acquired by Parliament House Melbourne and Bendigo Art Gallery, and has been recognised through the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, Ravenswood Women's Prize, Olive Cotton Award, Head On Photo Awards, and other national exhibitions.

www.laurenstarr.com.au
@laurenstarrartist

Commissions
Lauren's studio is in Bendigo VIC