CreatorTom CarmentTitleFiona's OptimaDate2017MediumOil on linenDimensionsH. 43.5cm x W. 53cm x D. 5.5cmArtist StatementEarly in 2017 I lugged my old office typewriter up to the kitchen table, to write a letter, and to show my son how things used to be done. He said it was very 'steampunk'. I enjoyed the physicality of writing on it again, the way it clarified my thoughts. After that I took it down to the lightwell of our terrace house and did a painting of it. Friends began to lend me their typewriters to paint as well. Each typewriter had its own provenance, its own 'fingerprint'. I put this beige Optima portable from the 1970s on top of an orange t-shirt with some pencils and white-out, but it needed something else. My late father-in-law worked in a country town high school during this era, and could type, so I placed his wristwatch next to it.Accession NumberG2020.1.1Credit LineDonated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts ProgramAccess AdviceFor research purposes only. No reproduction without permission of Yarrila Arts and Museum.
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Significance Statement
The work Fiona’s Optima was a finalist in the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery's signature program, Still: National Still Life Award. In 2017, this award was expanded from having a focus solely on still life painting to include artworks in all mediums. This painting however, continues and extends the gallery’s efforts in collecting the highest quality still life paintings for the gallery's collection. The still life genre is the specialist focus of the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery’s collection, with still life artworks identified as the first priority in the gallery’s collection policy, Section 2.4.2 (1): “Works in this section reflect the still life genre, as per artworks acquired through the National Still Life Award (Still) as well as through donation, purchase, transfer and bequest.” Acquiring this work by a prominent Australian artist also meets Section 2.4.2 (2) “Australian art: works acquired under this section of the policy reflect the broad directions in Australian art practice acquired through donation, purchase, transfer and bequest.”
Tom Carment is a leading Australian artist whose career spans over 35 years, 25 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows. His work is held in public and private collections including the Art Gallery of N.S.W., the State Library of N.S.W., and the City of Melbourne Art & Heritage Collection. He is a published writer as well as a painter and this painting Fiona’s Optima (of a typewriter) brings the two strands of his creative work together. As the artist describes “every typewriter has its provenance, its own fingerprint” and he explored this singularity in a series of paintings of friends’ typewriters in 2016-7. Carment is best known for painting from life and concentrated on urban and landscape scenes until 2013 when, at the age of sixty, he took to still life with great energy and concentration. Fiona’s Optima is a fine example of Carment’s work and an important addition to the gallery’s collection.
[Written by Jo Besley, 4 March 2019]
Description
Still-life painting of a typewriter on a yellow background, oil on linen.
