Creature Comforts

The Old Butcher’s Shop Gallery - Ballarat

05.02.22 - 27.02.22

This series of work from Madeleine Cruise is an intimate and reflective portrayal of the experience that has been ‘living with Covid’ in her home town of Ballarat.

Made over a two year period, Creature Comforts documents the artist’s living and working environment across a range of mediums. Keeping within the 5km radius of travel restrictions the artist’s local landscape of Black hill is a reoccurring motif as is the domestic space, which became an imaginative sanctuary.

Working within parameters Madeleine has focused her gaze and like the title suggests found solace in habitual practices. Newly adopted techniques of embroidery and carving feature in this exhibition as cathartic processes that served to not only extend upon aesthetic themes in the artist’s body of work but calm the mind.

A limited number of works from this exhibition are still available for purchase. Please see the STOCK ROOM for details.

Black Hill, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 45cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

Comin' round the bend, 2021

Acrylic on canvas, 38 x 25cm, Framed in Tasmanian oak

Lal Lal Falls, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 38cm, Framed in Tasmanian oak

Rock Stars, 2021

Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 38cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

Magic Hour, 2021

Acrylic on canvas, 38 x 25cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

Walking with dreams, 2021

Acrylic on canvas, 38 x 25cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

Leaning Stone Pines, 2021

Acrylic on canvas, 38 x 25cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

Still life with cyclamen, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 85 x 65cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

Thou shall not wear denim, 2020

A collaboration with Ruby Pilven.

Porcelain & stoneware clay with stoneware glaze & gold lustre on plywood.

Sylvia, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 25cm, Framed

If lemons could fly, 2021

Acrylic on canvas, 85 x 65cm, framed in Tasmanian oak

True Lovers, 2019

Acrylic on canvas. 76x56cm, framed in Tasmanian oak.

Ballarat Botanic Gardens, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, 104 x 94cm, framed

The Players (2), 2020.

A collaboration with Ruby Pilven.

Black mid fire clay on plywood.

The Players (2), 2020

A collaboration with Ruby Pilven

Porcelain clay on plywood.

Black Hill Spring, 2020

Lino print with water colour on paper, 22 x 33cm, framed.

Black Hill Dusk, 2021

Lino print with water colour on paper, 22 x 33cm, framed.

Black Hill Summer, 2021

Lino print with water colour on paper, 22 x 33cm, framed.

Black Hill Winter, 2021

Lino print with water colour on paper, 22 x 33cm, framed.

Black Hill - Summer, 2021

Lino print and gouache on paper, 18x30cm, unframed.

Black Hill Whispers, 2021

Lino print, gouache and pastel on paper, 22 x 33cm, unframed

Black Hill Whispers is a monotype print that combines lino printing, gouache and pastel to reflect the contemplative daily walks undertaken by the artist during the lockdowns of 2020 / 2021. The work documents the rugged atmospheric landscape but also the emotional terrain of ‘living with covid’. Lyrical marks and jagged shapes combine to show the highs and lows of life while carving is a chosen technique for the catharsis it offered in challenging times. The landscape takes on a performative quality in this work, symbolising the alternate realities born from the experience of walking in nature and the yearning of the artist to break free from the confines of the pandemic.