As the weather in Brisbane became cooler I travelled north to visit the Tablelands region, where my late father spent his idyllic school years. I hoped to capture the warmth and distant memories of the stories he told. The distinct environmental changes as I travelled inland from Cairns to the Tablelands were captivating. The landscape of the coast transformed into rainforest and brilliant red dirt in the farmlands around Yungaburra. While there, I created small studies working quickly to capture my response to each new location. Experiencing for the first time the surroundings my father once inhabited, I drew inspiration from them. I embedded these studies into my practice on my return to the studio and began my search for more landscapes close to home that generated the same comfort and connection experienced up north.
Julia Sirianni, January 2021
For Julia Sirianni, painting is more than a pastime – it is a way of finding calm in a world that causes anxiety. Location is everything. Each painting is the result of hours of research, scouring landscapes for the perfect space in which to immerse herself. Trained formally in Fine Art, Sirianni gravitated towards plein air painting when she discovered its intuitive, fast nature suited her own drive and boosted the confidence with which she viewed her practice. Soothed by her surroundings, Siranni’s attention shifts to atmosphere, and using light and colour to evoke the elements in front of her.
Lately, Sirianni has sought places of calm in the inner city, a result of the restrictions the world is currently living under. Able only to take photos or complete a few short sketches, her new body of work has been completed in the studio, leading to more detail, and focus on the manmade – though she continues to push herself to complete the works quickly, while her senses retain the memory of the place she has been. These works highlight the odd beauty of human traces, and the will of nature to regrow and repair.
Julia Sirianni completed her Bachelor of Visual Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, in 2015. Winner of the Macquarie Group Emerging Art Prize People’s Choice Award, Sydney (2019), she was a finalist in the Rotary Art Spectacular (2019), the Morris Art Prize (2018), Nundah Art Show (2017) and the Brisbane Art Prize (2016).
Carrie McCarthy 2020
