Ruse artist Celeste Wrona has won international recognition.
Her works are held in private collections worldwide and she is often exhibited in Sydney.
Ms Wrona’s original artworks and limited edition prints are currently stocked by The Block Shop.
She has also been featured online at well-known international contemporary art pages and blogs such as Rated Modern Art and Art for Breakfast.
But after a decade both as an artist and a teacher, the 32 year old will finally get some recognition in her own backyard.
Two of Ms Wrona’s works will be on display in the Campbelltown Arts Centre until July 31.
They are part of the annual Friends Annual exhibition, a showcase of works by members of the Friends of Campbelltown Arts Centre.
The Ruse artist admits that it is indeed nice to get a little bit of local recognition.
“I started selling my works at markets a year and a half ago, at Macarthur Square,’’ Ms Wrona says.
“It’s a place where people feel less intimidated than if they were in a studio, where it’s quite intense for some people.
“In a market people can look at the work, and there’s no pressure to buy.
“So it’s nice for the local art gallery to take my work.
“That’s the next level from the markets, so people can see it in a different light,’’ she says.
Finding inspiration in bush around Ruse
A lot of Celeste Wrona’s works also reflect the bush around where she lives with her husband Chris and two year old son Hugo.
“Definitely,’’ she says.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I often take Hugo and the dogs for a walk around here and I slow down to look at the textures of the bark on the trees or the leaves.[/social_quote]
“I really love the gradation of colour and how something can slowly change from one colour to another.
“When you stop and look you will see that sort of detail, tiny textures and patterns,’’ Ms Wrona said.
“They’re the things that ever since I was little I’ve been obsessed with looking at.’’
Celeste Wrona’s works are a brilliant exploration of colour and movement.
However some viewers may see them as a mere splash of colours.
But like all good artists, there is more to Wrona’s work than meets the eye.
“In abstract work some people think that’s just messy paint, but it does take a lot more to get a work that’s just colour to be more representational, more balanced, to look well finished,’’ she says.
“I often get that, being a teacher as well; I show the students a technique, and it looks quite easy when someone who’s been doing it for some time shows you.
“But then when you try and do it yourself, to put colours together and not make them muddy, is something quite hard to do as well.
“If I get the purples touching the greens too much I get big areas of brown, and all those things come with time,’’ she says.
My next question is: When you’re about to start a new work do you have an idea in your head of what you will be producing?
“I think sometimes I go in with an idea I’ve had in my mind, sometimes I’m working in my mind for a long time of what I want to achieve,’’ Ms Wrona says.
“Sometimes I will come down to my studio late at night after a long day and it’s almost like a release.
“I pick up colours that fit with me at that time, with how I feel, and I just work, and if I feel like adding another colour in I will – it’s quite intuitive.’’
But before colour there was another passion for this Ruse artist.
“I used to be a really realistic drawer, hands, feet, faces, and when I was at university I studied drawing, and that was my passion at first,’’ she says.
“And then I did a bit of painting, not as much as drawing.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I slowly did more painting and I discovered that working with the painting and non representational art was really liberating.[/social_quote]
“There wasn’t that pressure of making something look realistic.
“And being able to enjoy the process and not being contained by the idea that if doesn’t end up looking like I anticipated in the beginning, there wasn’t that pressure.
“And getting rid of that pressure really changed the game for me and I fell in love with that kind of style of it because of that I think.’’
Celeste Wrona has in recent times started to accept commission work.
“I’ve been lucky so far in that most people who have approached me to commission work have liked my style and my work and are happy for me to stick to certain colours they want and a size they want,’’ she says.
“You’re never ever going to be able to please everybody, but when I do a commission piece it’s a constant conversation with the client, sending photos back and forth as I go – thank God for technology – do they want more purple or green in it, so they feel like they have input.’’
How long does one work take to complete, from go to whoa?
“It depends – one where there’s been no issues, everything doing as it’s told, I could do a painting in a day,’’ she says.
“On a terrible day or on a day when I am experimenting or trialling different materials it could take me weeks or months.’’
Like all artists, Celeste Wrona cops the classic query of: what’s this painting about, is it autobiographical?
“It comes with the nature of art,’’ she says.
“Some people assume there has to be some deep meaning; you have to be some tortured artist.
“Art that does that well is great but I also think that sometimes having art just for the pleasure, the beauty of colour – that’s what I enjoy.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I love artists who work conceptually as well, but I am obsessed with those elements of nature, looking and admiring something for what it is.[/social_quote]
“If the viewer wants to take away more from it, I’d leave that open to them.
“And that’s the good thing about art, you can decide for yourself what it means.’’
♦ If you’d like to find out more or look at the works of Celeste Wrona, visit her website here.
