Photo: Amelia Stanwix
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Having studied painting since the age of six in Moscow, Rolfe has an impressive technique foundation. Yet, since arriving in Australia in 2009, she has enjoyed unpacking the rigour she received as a young person. For over a decade she has pursued all that she was not taught, following her instincts into new territory.
Marina Rolfe invents places, ones that don’t exist—“new places”, she calls them. Using elements from real environments, Rolfe transforms and abstracts recognisable forms and scenes from nature into something new that reveals itself unexpectedly with each layer of paint. Characterised by abstracted rolling hills, round boulders, tendrils of growth, or dense areas of scrub, these paintings are composed of many organic parts that slowly appear, disappear and re-emerge.
"‘I get inspired by my immediate environment, being in nature, seeing colours and textures, materials, and collaborating with them."
– Marina Rolfe
Rolfe straddles the line between intuition and decisiveness. Every mark, every colour in her work feels selected and deliberate, yet they impart an overwhelming feeling of spontaneity.
This powerful combination of opposites—control and improvisation—is the result of Rolfe's well-honed skills and her superb visual intelligence.
For more information, please visit Marina Rolfe’s website here.