For someone who never received formal training, and only picked up a brush with intent four years ago, Bowraville’s Myffie Coady is one hell of an artist.
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But don’t take my word for it. The list of accolades awarded her this year speaks for itself.
Her lugubrious and unrestrained landscapes earned her the title of Grand Champion at April’s Macksville Show, and again last month at the 31st Annual Sawtell Art Exhibition.
“I’ve never won Grand Champion before, so I nearly exploded with joy,” she said.
“I guess, because I don’t know the rules, I can’t break any. It allows me a certain freedom to paint from intuition.”
Her emotions and visual experiences are writ large on her bold canvases. The dancing brush strokes a testament to her joyful abandon in her music-filled studio, the curves and lines of rivers and trees an homage to the country she loves so dearly, and her charcoal embellishments which sit “in, under, on top of, and everywhere in between” are more than just outlines – they’re spectral memories, and serve to cast doubt on the formal ‘rules’ of traditional acrylics and oils.
“Often some of my best works result from a mistake,” she said.
One of her most recent exploits, ‘Riviere’, is a poignant example of this ‘mistake-fuelled’ process. The layering of colours and charcoal evolved until the finished canvas resembled nothing of the content underneath.
“Knowing when to stop, to pull back, is the hardest lesson. And I’m still learning,” she said.
Learning or not, that painting was recently awarded a highly commended at both the Coffs Coast Art Prize and the Bellinger River EJ Mantova Memorial Art Prize.
Despite an early and persistent love for drawing, painting and dance, she was forbidden from pursuing a career in the arts. Four years ago, at a Camp Creative course, she encountered Lynne Bickhoff who introduced her to the rich world of textured paint.
“She used to throw salt on things, and use rust-coloured paints. I just couldn’t get enough of it – I was like a sponge. I got so into it that at one point a lady asked me to stop flicking paint on her. I hadn’t realised I was doing it,” she said.
“Now, if I’m not painting, then I feel like something’s wrong.”
She said another artist from Grafton, Julie Hutchings, was the second exceptional influence on the formation of her style, and encouraged her looseness. Myffie often practises this intention through left-handed charcoal drawings, which encourage her to focus on movement and shape rather than precision.
Despite a hugely successful four year run, Myffie says she still gets nervous before an exhibition.
“Obviously you personally can’t be valued by your art, but at the same time it is you – or an extension of you – so in some ways it is a kind of validation,” she said.
“I’ve always been driven by the desire to share my experiences. I am happiest when I know that my art is resulting in others having an emotional reaction to what I’ve painted or drawn.”
Next week Myffie will open her final exhibition for 2018 at the Macleay Valley Community Art Gallery in Gladstone.
“Perceptions” will be a series of contemporary acrylic and charcoal artworks which draw upon her meanderings through local landscapes with her Border Collie, Billy, and travels through the spectacular rusty scenery of the Kimberleys.
The exhibition runs from November 28 through to December 16 and is open daily from 10.30am to 4pm.
For more information about Myffie’s artwork, contact 0437 302 146, or visit her website www.myffiecoadyart.com