Jennifer Baird
I am a mid-career multi-media 2D artist, with a practice that encompasses printmaking, collage and recycled media constructions and painting.
I’ve called Canberra home for 13 years. Over the past few years as my life has become busier I have moved away from painting, just doing the occasional oil painting with a palette knife. And as I have aged my sight has changed and I don’t do the fine brushwork of the gouache paintings I am probably best known for.
This has led to me rediscovering my love for screen printing, which I studied at UTS in a Bachelor of Design. Instead of fabric it is now paper. I love the sound of the squeegee pushing the ink through the screen onto the paper. I was meant to be a printmaker.
Through small editions of ten, I explore my love for the ocean and Australian seascapes. I have discovered a love for CMYK printing, and in 2022 experimented for the first time with lithography. I found it a very challenging printmaking medium, but felt that it took my art practice to the next level.
Another development is minimalism, especially in the palette knife oil paintings.I love painting with the palette knife, making ripples - just like icing a cake. My collages have also become more abstract and minimal.
Available works
Exhibitions and awards
Galleries
Tyger Gallery, Sutton Village Gallery, Humble House gallery .
2022
International group exhibition ‘Door to Door’ Lite-Haus Gallery. Berlin
International group exhibition ‘The Garden of Loss and Triumph’ NDSM FUSE Gallery Amsterdam.
Published in Art Edit magazine, Designer’s Brief with Brett Mickan interior designer. Lava Café Phillip, Rotating Exhibition. ‘Canberra’
2021
Finalist - River of Art Art Prize, ‘Under the Wisteria’ Narooma.
Group exhibition ‘The Garden of Loss and Triumph’ No Vacancy Gallery. Melbourne. Group exhibition ‘A Road Home’ with Valentyna Crane and Elena Bozhko Marshall, Humble House Gallery, Canberra
Solo exhibition ‘Reflected Light’ Strathnairn Arts, Canberra.
Group exhibition ‘Door to Door - Australia’ No Vacancy Gallery. Melbourne.
The Other Art Fair Virtual Editions.
Lava Café Phillip, Rotating Exhibition, ‘Canberra’
2020
Published in the Megalo Print Studios 40th Birthday calendar.
Group exhibition ‘Pause Button’ The Old Auction House, Kyneton.
2019
Finalist - SCRAP 2019, ‘My favourite word is Patina’
2019 - 20 Chair, Trove Canberra Co-op, Dickson
Finalist - Haven Art Prize ‘Hyams Beach Horizon’ Seechange Festival, Jervis Bay. Group exhibition, The Exhibition Project, City Recital Hall, Sydney.
Group exhibition, Artaviso 1.0, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
Solo exhibition ‘Dawn train to Sydney’ Shaw Vineyard, Murrumbateman.
2018
2017-18 Chair of Trove Canberra Co-op, Canberra City
Finalist - Swanpool Creative Recycled Art Prize ‘SCRAP’ ‘Peaks and Troughs and Great Tag Wave’
Group exhibition ‘Field of Vision’ Stirato Gallery, Canberra
Solo exhibition ‘Here and There’ Stirato Gallery, Canberra
Finalist - Waverley Art Prize 2018, Bondi Sydney ‘Shanghai-La, Bondi’.
Group exhibition ‘This Moment’ Noir Darkroom Gallery, Melbourne,
2017
Finalist 9x5 Landscape Prize, Waverley Woollahra Arts School, ‘Storm over LBG from Parkes Way’.
The Other Art Fair, Australian Technology Park, Sydney
Finalist - Brisbane Art Prize 2017, ‘It’s all in the Cookie’
Empire Global Art Prize, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra ‘Greyhound on a rug’. Highly Commended - Print section - Waverley Art Prize 2017, hand coloured lino print ‘George Baldessin meets Andy Warhol’.
Finalist - The Shoalhaven Contemporary Art Prize, Nowra ‘Sunrise’
Published in Art Edit Magazine, Spring Edition 2017
2016
RAW Showcase Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra
Finalist - Brisbane Art Prize 2016, ‘Unfolding’
Joint winner of the inaugural Sheridan Evans Art award for artwork relating to ocean pools, hand coloured lino print ‘Pools of Sydney’.
2005-2015 Worked on private commissions and website fifthseason.com.au 2005 Solo exhibition ‘Plastic Fantastic’ MAD sustainable gallery Enmore, Sydney
2004 Solo exhibition ‘Water’s Edge’ foyer of Glebe Healing Centre, Annandale Sydney.
2003 ‘Ocean and Earth’ with ceramicist Walter Auer, Kulture Shop Gallery, Bronte Sydney
1999 Exhibition ‘Blue Series’ with Wingbeat Designs Blue Turtle Studio, Newtown Sydney
1998 Exhibition ‘Greek Island Series’ Blue Turtle Studio, Newtown, Sydney
1997 Exhibition ‘Newtown Series’ with Wingbeat Designs, Blue Turtle Studio, Sydney
1996 Exhibition at Blue Turtle Studio ‘Eight Canvases’, Newtown Sydney. 1996 Solo exhibition ‘Noisy Water’ Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Sydney
1995-2000 Opened Blue Turtle Studio with jewellery designers Wingbeat Designs, Bronte and later King Street Newtown, Sydney.
February 1994 - sold my first artwork for $5 ‘Boy holding a surfboard’ Bondi Beach Markets
Education
1993 Bachelor of Design (Fashion and Textiles 2nd class honours) University of Technology, Sydney