Creative: Vanessa Morton’s colours and patterns will be used to reflect next year’s Shepparton Festival theme of ‘thrive’.
All sorts of things come together in Vanessa Morton’s artwork — the ancient and the modern, nature and storylines, colour and movement — and now festival themes.
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The Toolamba-based artist responded to the 2022 Shepparton Festival committee’s call to create with a series of swirling, meditative images created by pouring paint on water.
Ms Morton called her entry Thriving Through The Chaos in response to next year’s festival theme of ‘thrive’.
Her subtle patterns and colours will now be used throughout the 2022 festival’s programme and other branding.
Ms Morton said her method was based on the ancient Japanese water marbling technique of suminagashi.
“It’s influenced by the minute details and repetitive patterns that form in nature over vast periods of time — such as wood rings and sedimentary rock layers,” she said.
Swirls: Ms Morton’s patterns are based upon the ancient Japanese water marbling technique of suminagashi.
Ms Morton said she liked to create meditation rings through marbling, which she uses to stay steady and centred.
A painter for many years, Ms Morton said she discovered the ancient technique about five years ago.
“I had that creative itch and I saw someone doing it online,” she said.
Ms Morton said she managed to juggle her art practice with looking after her 14-month-old son Elliott.
“My time to be creative is a bit more limited now, but I’ve learned not to be a perfectionist,” she said.
Ms Morton said a long preparation time meant marbling was not a spur of the moment thing.
“I use seaweed powder to thicken it up like soup and it has to stand for about 12 hours before the paint can float on the surface,” she said.
The result: Ms Morton uses the marbling rings as a meditation tool during her art practice.
“In each of my pieces, I can find a story. The story is told before the paint hits the paper, when colours are swirling around the water bath creating mesmerising and hypnotic patterns that draw me into the present moment and keep me calm,” she said.
Ms Morton hoped her artwork reflected the strength and resilience the Shepparton community had displayed during the past two years of pandemic restrictions.
“When we band together and hold each other up, we build strength and resilience, we push out the storm, we don’t just ‘get by’ as a community, we bounce back with our roots firmly planted deep in the ground, we thrive and build on something greater than the storm,” she said.
Shepparton Festival director Jamie Lea said now that restrictions were easing, it presented an even greater opportunity for the arts to flourish.
“The roller coaster of the past two years seems to have finally come to an end and life can return to normal,” Ms Lea said.
“This means that now, more than ever, the Shepparton Festival has the opportunity to support and encourage our local creative scene to thrive while working with artists from all over the country to contribute to our 2022 festival this coming March.”
Next year’s festival takes place from March 18 to April 3.
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