Cherry Hood is known for her haunting, large-scale images of faces, often executed in watercolour which she allows to bleed and drip. She specialises in intense depictions of anonymous subjects, but occasionally she makes portraits – often of fellow artists. Her paintings of Ben Quilty and Michael Zavros were Archibald Prize finalists in 2007 and 2010 respectively, and this watercolour of artist Marion Borgelt (b. 1954) was shortlisted for the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2001. Borgelt, who held her first solo exhibitions in Adelaide in the 1970s, was trained as a painter, but her practice encompasses sculpture, installation and temporal works, and incorporates a variety of materials and processes including wood, bronze, wax, stone and glass. 'The eyes are always the focus of my paintings,' Hood has said, and this work demonstrates her skill at combining finely-painted elements – especially the eyes – with the fluidity and unpredictability of watercolour, incorporating expanses of wash and subtle gradations of tone and shadow.
Gift of Marion Borgelt 2022. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Cherry Hood/Copyright Agency, 2023
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