Press

“Living the Artist Dream” by Pakenham Gazette journalist, Corey Everett.

Emerald artist, Kara Morrison would not have thought she would become the painter she is today when originally choosing to become a teacher. Yet the desire to express herself got the best of her some years later when finally committing to the brush. Gazette journalist Corey Everett spoke with Kara this week to discuss her first solo exhibition showcasing the mystery of the Dandenong Ranges and what inspires her to keep painting.

Kara is a local teacher at Bridgewood Primary School. and former resident of Officer, now living in Emerald (Clematis).

If she asked her younger self just coming out of VCE where she should be in the future, she probably wouldn’t have imagined that there a lot of her time would be spent in her own home studio producing art, some of which for her own solo gallery.

Like many young people, she sketched away in her notebook making the unconditional scribbles and expressions of imaginative youth.

Also, like many young people, should put such imagination aside when she same into adulthood. Opting to become a primary school teacher, rather than pursue art, for better financial security.

“I knew that artists don’t earn much. There is not much in the way of financial security” Kara said.

“I guess coming out of VCE, I decided to be a primary school teacher and I thought I could be an art teacher from there.”

Being an art teacher was a healthy compromise and no doubt she loves teaching her students, she has done so for almost 25 years now. However, she never actually got around to teaching art class.

It was about 12 years ago when she got serious. Her love for art never truly left and the bug to express herself kept rearing its pestering head until she couldn't ignore it anymore.

“Just seeing other artists’ work. I have always enjoyed going to the galleries, it’s like my rock concert. I get my buzz from them, “ she said.

“I think I just had this want to be an artist and it just grea until it was a screaming toddler chucking a tantrum, “come on you got to do this now!”

She would begin learning the fundamentals at Rings Road Art School in Moorabbin under local artist, Effie Mandalos.

I started off with portraiture, especially when I was in Officer. I got my first commission. One of my neighbours came to me and wanted me to paint a portrait of him and his wife for their wedding anniversary,” she said.

Continuing her buzz at the galleries, she found inspiration for her first successful work from Nora Heysen, renowned Australian artist and first woman to win the Archibald Prize.

“I found her portrait in the Canberra Portrait Gallery, her self-portrait, and I decided to do my own self-portrait based on that,” she said.

“I ended with that in the John Dudley Portrait Prize, just up the road (at the Emerald Arts Society) and I was a finalist in 2019”

Her self-portrait would also become a finalist at the Gosford Art Prize, a prestigious annual art competition hosted in the New South Wales town since the 1970s.

Portraits were obviously her strong suit, but with further study, she realised there wasn’t much point limiting yourself in art.

“When I did my Diploma of Visual Arts, I walked in believing I would just be a portrait painter, then I did a unit on Australian landscapes,” she said.

Kara’s field of expression expanded as she studied the words of Albert Namatjira, Hans Heysen, Arthur Streeton and Mary Tonkin, all seminal painters of Australia’s unique natural scapes.

This would lead her to her latest works. Which was excitedly showcased in her first ever solo exhibition last year in December (2023) called “Engulfed.”

Held at At 14 Gallery in Collingwood’s Langridge Street, the exhibition showed her landscapes depicting the Dandenong Ranges.

One may be thrown off guard by these landscapes, they are composed of thick strokes and deliberate dabs of the darkest pigments.

It would take a moment to perceive, yet what emerges within assemblage is a unique impression of the ranges with their towering ash, dew soaked ferns and its elusive shadow and cool mist that enshrouds.

This comes from a desire to capture the feeling of the ranges over direct semblance.

“I want to give off some kind of mysteriousness, which the Dandenong Ranges have this ominous kind of feel, especially today,” Kara said, referring to the perpetual rain over the last week.

“It’s not a photo, it’s something more than that, it’s emotionally evoking.”

“The one thing here with the road, I’ve had people say ‘I remember driving in the Dandenongs when I was a kid’ especially people living in Collingwood where they haven’t been up there for years.”

With the exhibition over, Kara will continue to work on these pieces. Her own critic, she refers to some as a ‘bit flat’, over time she has learnt to embrace the continual process of making art, rather than fixate over the finished product. A big part of her career has been her mentor Paul Macklin, an artist from MacMasters Beach, New South Wales.

“I was very reluctant to experiment and being classically trained going back to Rings Road where it was all fundamentals, Paul kind of shook that out of me,” Kara said.

“I think that exploration has allowed me to have those moments and find out how things work visually. I have a lot of a-ha moments, I have a lot of despairing moments and angry moments too.”

“It’s interesting because I make a mistake and I rub it of, I’ll go ‘oh, actually that marks pretty well’, and if I hadn't made that mistake then that wouldn’t have happened.”

When experimenting it’s about trusting the process, there are always forms to which one prescribes and conditions art, some to which others may ridicule, but an artist like Kara allows the process to unravel and reveal something new.

“This one,” she said, referring to a large piece from the Engulfed collection. “Started off with a broom. I got it from Bunnings, I had a lot of people laughing at me. So I was outside and just went completely nuts with black and green paint.”

“Paul likes this analogy of playing golf without a hole. You are just hitting golf balls and wherever they land, they land.”

While she continues with her landscapes she is going to return to portraiture with a submission to the Archibald Prize this year. She already has a subject, the interviews and sketches are underway.

With this exciting year ahead, Kara will also make time to work with locals. She plans to run workshops in the ranges this year for any artist who wishes to get a peek into her style or just wants to get some tips for their own.

Most exciting of all however, is the dream came true. She will soon be teaching art class for Prep at Bridgewood Primary School.

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