As an artist, Piawaning-based Nyree-Jane Taylor draws daily inspiration from her rural surroundings. Her vibrant paintings capturing the ever-changing light and colour of the pastoral landscapes and dramatic cloud-scapes around her.
As a farmer’s wife and mother of young children her daily life is similarly shaped by both the changing seasons and the promise of what the clouds will bring; a duality she explores in her upcoming exhibition ‘Arcadia’. “In Arcadia I look at the inhale with the exhale, the micro to the macro, the flower to the landscape… It is inspired by my life as a farmer, mother, businesswoman and artist,” she explains.
Opening at the end of the month at Kidogo Art House in Fremantle, Arcadia is Nyree’s third major exhibition in Perth. The show will exhibit a series of her large monochrome charcoal drawings contrasted with colour land and cloud-scape paintings; a study of photographs taken during her evening runs on the farm. “My love for clouds comes from my surroundings and my children… they are my heaven, they are space, they are time…” she says.
A former contemporary dancer, Nyree studied fine art at Claremont Art school and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Curtin University. A glamorous life of overseas travel and work took a dramatic turn when she met her farmer husband Nick Scotney back in Perth and moved to the family farm just out of New
Norcia. Her creative work pursuits continued at the nearby Benedictine Monastery where she initiated art workshops and developed courses for visiting school camp groups and was later invited to be an artist-in-residence – a time she remembers with particular fondness. “New Norcia at that time had at least a
dozen young women all attached to either a farmer or farm operator. We established these die-hard relationships thanks to that place, including with some of the monks.”
Embracing the fulfilment in pastoral simplicity is now a driving force in Nyree’s creative practise and she has found a comfortable balance between her family, farm and artistic life. “Farming is all about seasons and the farming clock: seeding, spraying, spreading; then wait… wait for the heavens to open; and then hopefully watch it grow as you tend to all the other jobs. Then of course there’s harvest. Being an artist is similar: there’s a process; a let go; and a waiting period for works to mature.”
Arcadia runs at Kidogo Art House, Fremantle from 28 September to 3 October, opening on Saturday 30 September at 6pm. Closer to home you can see Nyree’s works at Jeanne D’Moore Cafe in Moora throughout October where she will be artist-in-residence and follow her on instagram @furthermore_art.
