Alumni in the ANU Art Collection: Alison Ford

Alumni students and staff from the ANU School of Art and Design are numerously represented in the collection through purchases, generous donations by artists and patrons and through the School of Art and Design’s Emerging Artists Support Scheme. In this series of posts we continue to introduce alumni artists and their works in the collection, and give a brief insight into their lives and art practices.

Kyandi was one of the last of the paintings made before I graduated from my Honours year. During this time, I had been exploring ways to paint colour as a subject without figurative elements interfering with seeing of the colours. I decided circles were the best motif to achieve this. I was also beginning to experiment with chance in the development of composition and colour choice in painting but was struggling to articulate why. I have continued with this enquiry in recent times. Kyandi was one of the first paintings that I expanded the range of size of motif and varied the the circle’s edge from indistinct to hard. The painting was named for its bright colours – candy colours.

I came to the ANU with the intention of learning to paint. I had attended several semesters of the Adult education classes which whet a latent appetite to learn and know more about painting. This was my second degree, my first being Landscape Architecture (where I had attended the School of Art for a drawing elective). I came as an excitable mature student and left with a set of skills for and knowledge of something that has become a core part of my daily life, more than I expected. I found the atmosphere at the School of Art stimulating and challenging and loved the rigour of learning. I had never been surrounded by people who shared a similar view of seeing and being in the world such as I did whilst at the School of Art. I miss those daily interactions. I am surprised by the network of people I gained during my years of study and continue to interact with. My study certainly has been a life changing event.

Explore Alison Ford’s artwork on her Facebook page.