On "The Heysen Trail"

In the process of art-making I move between realism and abstraction. The representational and the abstract inform each other, providing different methods to portray the complexity of nature. My current art practice includes regular ‘plein air’ painting expeditions. I have made studies of Australian landscapes in coastal, outback, city and pastoral areas.

The abstract landscapes I have developed in the studio over the last 4 years depict the highly cultivated landscape of wheat fields and vineyards in the “Mid-North” region of South Australia. The rural landscape has been highly constructed by humans, the patterns and textures of farming activities are imposed upon it. I feel that this re-arrangement of nature provides a freedom to abstract it further with paint. The colours, tonality and light from the ‘plein air’ studies enter the abstract landscapes but the two dimensionality is heightened, the landscape flattened and elements merged for the construction of a dynamic abstract design. Details are sacrificed or exploited for formal purposes. Re-arrangement allows broad vistas to fit into ordinary rectangles.

The abstract paintings investigate the temporal experience of viewing the landscape. The progress of the seasons and the re-working of the land by growers imbue it with impermanence. The paintings I have made portray the movement of light over land, the cycle of growth in plants and soil, the flamboyant persistence of roadside weeds. The textures, colours and patterns are undergoing daily changes. These alterations are heightened by the experience of driving, moving through the view, watching shapes shift with changing perspective. I document these changes using photography, often from a moving vehicle. By combining these images into collages, formal devices such as tonal design, alterations of scale, colour intensity of distances and overlapping of forms are employed. The collages are used as maquettes for the larger abstract paintings. Further re-arrangements of form are made during the painting process. Grasses or branches become gestures, roads are made into formal borders between shapes, skies are fragmented and used as tonal intrusions.

Relationships between landscape elements are shifted as happens when the viewer moves through the landscape. When produced in this way, the paintings become landscape journeys exploring the passage of time.  

Lise has been making art for over fifteen years and became a full-time, professional artist in 2005. Her art practice encompasses a diverse range of subjects, mainly executed in oils.

Lise moves between degrees of abstraction, producing works of pure abstraction through to realism, and in-between. Lise is best known for her abstract landscapes, a series inspired by the colours, contrasting light and broad shapes of the agricultural landscape. However her other abstract and realist works are an integral part of her process. The representational and abstract works feed into each other; in both she attempts to capture the complexity of natural forms. The textures, colours and patterns of nature constantly influence the work.

Lise is the recipient of many art awards including the Balco Art Prize in 05 and 06 and Best Regional Artist Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape in 2007 and has also been a finalist in National Art Prizes, including the Fleurieu Peninsula Benniale 2004 and the Waterhouse Natural History Prize 2005. The Waterhouse entry recieved Highly Commended award and was selected to tour to the National Archives Canberra in October 2005.

Exhibiting art for over twelve years, Lise Temple holds exhibitions in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA. Lise is currently residing in the mid-North of South Australia. Lise accepts commissions.

Lise often documents her subject photographically first, often from a moving vehicle.  From these photos Lise starts to assemble abstract compositions, altering factors including the scale and the colour intensity.  These new designs are then used as maquettes for larger abstract paintings.

John Neylon, (Adelaide based independent art writer and curator), has written about Lise: "Her images have on one hand the verve and restless energy that one associates with an artist such as van Gogh, but on the other, they have a crystalline quality as if distillations of multiple viewing experiences."