Salli Sixpence uses macro photography with paint on glass, mirrors and colour card to deliver an abstract view of all things botanical. A petal, a stamen, a leaf, a stick. Rock salt, sump oil, bark, coffee, mirrors. All grist for the abstract lumiere mill.
Most Sixpence works employ the use of two plates of paint laden glass 'swished' together to produce a base. Place a small botanical item or any bit of flotsam-jetsam on the top plate and use a bevelled mirror to skip mirror refracted sunlight through and across the surface to produce vibrant layered colour and depth of field. A random reincarnation of one entity so to become another.
This macro photo ABSTRACT LUMIERE art technique - a contemporary nod to the French Lumiere brothers 1907 potato starch colour plate process - is born out of the neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran's reference to the 'Universal Artistic Constant'.
"No matter the art style or abstract art culture, marry the right curve/colour combination and the primal trigger in the limbic reward system tells the visual cortex 'Show me that again'. Similar to the doctor tapping the knee". The objective is to attempt to replicate that impulse response. The works must 'pop'. Wall Bling - for want of a description. That's the experiment anyway.
Widening The Gap
Two Tribes - Different Treasures
90x110
Gallery Floating Acrylic
2024
The Voice? Gone. Closing The Gap? Struggling.
A web of failures and mis-steps.
The sun fast setting on a solution. A reflective message in a window.
Sparkly trinkets of whimsy. Ribbons of storied gravitas.
Two Tribes - Different treasures.
...
A web of failures and mis-steps.
The sun fast setting on a solution. A reflective message in a window.
Sparkly trinkets of whimsy. Ribbons of storied gravitas.
Two Tribes - Different treasures.
...
SHARDS OF LONDON
The Thames Tureen
Collage under resin
Rotary Art Prize
Finalist
2023
Crockery and pipe stems collected in situ from Queenhithe
The last remaining medieval dock on The Thames
...
Immigrants All
2020
Lethbridge 20000 Art Prize
Finalist
...
Great Southern Land
Antartica
Torn card on glass
mirror reflected sunlight
in situ
for L&P
...
Mick's Last Dance
...
Argyle
The Kimberley
Torn Card - Salt - Pepper - Mirrored Sunlight
...
...
The Blue Stuff
Sirens In Sydney's Head
The moon was out
the heads was near...
after Mr Whiteley
The Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular
Finalist
2019
The Albatross Cometh
Sirens sing so pretty when your head's in a spin
and the black dog has fairly ripped your arse.
Sailing aeons away from no where
dreams of Sydney Heads - the past.
Lonely hangs high from somewhere
and that somewhere is the mast.
...
Bones then the Flesh
sump oil . honeydew berry . petal . paint
and the heart of the matter...
mirror reflected sunlight
Night Rescue
The Brisbane Art Prize
Short listed
2017
Before and After
A Prospectors Lament
The Milburn Art Prize
Finalist
salt . coffee . paper . bevel mirror
80x120
2018
Boko Haram - The Dark Heart
The Brisbane Art Prize
Finalist 2016
Menindee Fracked - Horsemen Of The Apocalypse
The Pro Hart / Broken Hill Open Landscape Art Prize
Finalist 2016
Icarus
The Great War
1914 - 1918
Our lads flew too near the sun
and burnt 'em selves real bad
the guns the crumps the body bits
the screams and streams of sad.
...
Seattle
Mother Lode
The Hidden Kimberley
...
Pig and the Prince
Panza takes a break
Cannon Fodder On The Western Front
1917
22,000 diggers KIA
The Pozieres ridge is "more densely sown with Australian blood than any other place on earth."
Charles Bean
Breadfruit leaf and capers on glass
"He Drowned Before He Hit The Shore - that Gallipoli Morn"
Noosa Regional Gallery Art Prize
Finalist 2016
...
Noosa Regional Gallery Exhibition
2015
WW1
"Dear Dor I'm Done For"
1915 - An Angel Cometh
I saw an angel glide on by
through mud n' blood from one good eye
the uva' one is out me head
mashed up bad an' now I's dead.
1915 - Bone Yard Bridge I
How I dreamt of things back 'ome
and how t'was gunna' be
a princess in a cradle Dor'
some cake - a cup o' tea.
1915 - Bone Yard Bridge II
Me gizzards is havin' a mud bath ma'
an' it don't be doin' me good
me spine is stickin' out me chest
if it don't look bad, it should.
...
...and now for something completely different
The Secret Harvest
be careful what you wish for
The Montalto Sculpture Prize Finalist 2016
An Ode To CSG
Frackin' Bad
Diaphanous light shards dancing
sweep yon ground around
playful seductive beastly
drawing wind and light
fracked cracked salt and legal
a brazen she'll be right
The Secret Harvest
salli sixpence
Unintended Consequences
The Parrot Mincer
Judgement Day
Seed Bank - Mawson's Hut.
Clayton Utz Art Award - Finalist 2015
Clayton Utz Art Award - Finalist 2015
Noosa Regional Art Gallery - 2015 LOTHARIO
Salli Sixpence Exhibition - SOUND TREK 2012 Lethbridge 10000 - Most Original Work
...
Cracked Salt Plains
The Broken Hill Art Prize
Finalist 2014
...
Return To Country
The Pro Hart - Broken Hill Art Prize
Finalist 2015
...
The Pro Hart - Broken Hill Art Prize
Finalist 2015
...
Kimberley Crude - The Argyle
bevelled mirrors leaf and paint
bevelled mirrors leaf and paint
Oasis - Durrie Station
Fire Stick Dreaming
Bidoori Salt Traders
Wabby Lake Song Line
Dune Wrens - Fraser Island
Noosa Regional Art Gallery Art Prize
Finalist
Noosa Regional Art Gallery Art Prize
Finalist
Atlas Fracked - Eyre Basin
Honey Trap
3 Degrees of Separation
...
Noosa Regional Gallery - 2015
...something about a silk purse and a sows ear
Noosa Regional Gallery - 2015
Winter Sun
The Wilson Finalist
2013
The Wilson Finalist
2013
Kelly came a knockin'
on that cold old wintery morn'.
I'll swaps me horse for your mums bed
like I did afore you's born.
Yeah - step right in ol' Ned o' mine
your timing's good and proper.
Ma's fairly warmed 'erself all up
she's just kicked out the copper.
...
Lethbridge Galleries
Salli Sixpence Exhibition
FLYING PRETTY
2014
That Country Town Dance
and the lonely wife
Late in the evening come the scones and the tea
hubby's all boozed out the front round the tree.
The last Pride of Erin
she say thanks - you say ta'
I'm achin' young fella' - has you got a car?
Tresses gold, bourbon and blonde
a delicate convex of female adductor.
She slips out the back and
the lad quietly...
...
Duck a l'orange
Rothko's Spring
Swan Lake
The Circus Comes To Town
..
London Bound
* * *
Exhibitions and Short Listings
2023
Lethbridge 20000
Finalist
2019
The Milburn Art Prize - Finalist
The Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular - Finalist
2018
On The Bench
2017 - The Brisbane Art Prize.
2017 - The Morton Bay Art Awards.
2017 - The Lethbridge 10000 Art Prize.
2016 - The Brisbane Art Prize.
2016 - The Noosa Regional Gallery Art Prize.
2016 - The Montalto Sculpture Prize.
2016 - The Pro Hart Open Landscape Art Prize.
2015 - Clayton Utz Art Award.
2015 - Broken Hill Open Landscape Art prize.
2015 - Noosa Regional Gallery Exhibition '1915 - Dear Dor I'm Done For...'
2015 - Noosa Regional Gallery Exhibition - 'Sound Trek'
2014 - Lethbridge Gallery Exhibition - 'Once Were Oceans'
2014 - The Noosa Open Art award.
2014 - Broken Hill Open Landscape Art Prize.
2014 - The Stanthorpe Art Prize.
2013 - Wilson Art Prize.
2013 - Lethbridge Galleries Solo Exhibition - 'Flying Pretty'
2012 - Clayton Utz LAUNCH Art Award.
2012 - Lethbridge Gallery Solo Exhibition - 'Wall Bling'
2011 - Clayton Utz LAUNCH Art Award.
2011 - Lethbridge 10000 Art Award. Winner - Most Original Work
2011 - St Stephens COSSAG Art Show. Winner - Wilson-McGuinness Art Prize
2010 - Nudgee College Art Exhibition. Winner - Terry White Art Prize
2010 - Blackbutt Festival Sculpture Prize - Winner
2010 - Nundah Festival Art Prize - Winner
2010 - Martin Galleries Exhibition
2009 - Couldn't Bowl. Couldn't Bat.