If the past is a foreign country, then for artist Christine Ross that place is Japan.
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In 1972, she visited Tokyo and Kyoto on her way to Europe and was enchanted.
“The last thing I saw was Mount Fuji as we were flying out through the clouds,” Ross recalls. “That memory stayed with me.”
More than 40 years on, Ross has returned to her past and brought it not just into the present but into her paintings.
The acclaimed Lake Macquarie artist has visited Japan three times in as many years since 2014.
“I just can’t stay away, I love it,” she enthuses. “I was always interested in the culture, the art, the food, and I related to the people, with their assuredness yet politeness.”
The jolt to the senses in Japan, from the eye-popping high-rise walls of advertising to the centuries-old temples surrounded by nature, filled her with painting ideas.
“There are just these wonderful contrasts, and you’re right in the middle of it,” she says. “It combines beautiful landscape with the formality of modernist architecture, there’s the urbanisation and the idolisation of nature, and it’s so modern yet keeps all these lovely traditions.
“Everything, no matter how out there, has a sense of good design, placement, a lack of chaos. Everything is beautifully presented.”
Christine Ross has recorded her reactions to Japan in her latest exhibition, Fusion, at Art Wickham Systems.
With strong geometrical shapes painted onto plywood, Ross guides the viewer through the orange torii (gates) outside temples. She takes us into the contemplative space of the sand and stone gardens in Kyoto. She blasts the viewer with her interpretation of the neon shock-and-awe of Shinjuku. She invites us to stroll through the autumn leaves and view sunsets through the contemporary sculpture in Matsue, and to watch the cherry blossoms flutter and fall in spring. And Ross takes us into the forests around Hakone to gaze at Mount Fuji, just as she has done.
“I visited in different seasons and saw all the different colours,” she explains.
Ross’ paintings in this exhibition are like visual origami, unwrapping and unfolding something new and beautiful with each look.
More than take the viewer to Japan, Ross’ exhibition is a celebration of another aspect of her past. It is 50 years since she moved to Newcastle to paint and teach. In 1967, the National Art School graduate landed a job at the Newcastle Art School and later became a senior lecturer at the university.
The 73-year-old hopes her latest work is also a colour-filled demonstration you can pursue your passion right through life. And for Christine Ross, that means another visit to Japan in November for more inspiration.
“At my stage in life, I didn’t really expect to have this ongoing development,” she muses. “Yet life goes on, and it can be at the same pace, with the same enthusiasm and passion – and all those things should be happening!”