Justine Burgess Artist

About

This is a window into my art practice. Showing process across different mediums. All based around line and form found in nature.

Story

I am a doodler who started as most did, during school hours, when I was pretending to be busy listening. This evolved into me concentrating on one specific doodle.

All went quiet then until I’d finished raising two boys, and finding myself at a loss in my early 30s. I stumbled across a large man called Bob Ross who quietly introduced me to oil painting. After watching a few episodes I took the plunge and bought paints, brushes, easel, and canvases. I set myself up in my bedroom and over a few years improved from flat looking paintings to ones I was pleased with.

I’m attracted to the natural world and this is present in most of my work. Recently my artistic journey has taken me into acrylics and Oamaru stone carving - both very different to oil! I have been exploring two themes, the first being my childhood doodle, and the second land and seascapes. Stone work has introduced me to how light and shadow play across the surface of the stone, changing depending on viewing angle or even the time of the day.

My process is evolving at the moment, from my original slap paint on and see what happens approach to more structured planning with composition and colours. The stone carving started in a detailed way, with investigation, planning, considering how shapes interacted, standing back from the piece and seeing how the shadows changed whilst the piece developed, with tweaking and decision making each day.

Deep down my philosophy is simple, I desire people to pause and smile when they view my work.