Chantal is an Australian artist living in the Gippsland region of Victoria. She has lived in central Queensland, the southern highlands and central coast as a child and grew up in a large family where outdoor play was an everyday occurrence.
Chantal paints expressively using loose gestural marks by which she hopes to convey the sense of letting go of control and allowing ourselves to be within the cycles and imperfect systems of nature.
Chantal often uses natural ochres and earth pigments that are native to the places that hold deep meaning for her.
Chantal loves using colour and texture in her work to build up layers as she tells the story of the Australian landscape. She aims to be truly authentic allowing the work to reflect what she loves. By using elements of the earth in her work it connects the work in a physical and emotional way to the place that it is from.
Chantal has developed her art in an expressive and gestural style where she lets the piece lead the direction of the work. She starts each piece with play and self expression which she believes helps the work feel alive and free.
By working from memory and using elements of the earth in the form of earth pigments it leads to an organic and expressive style of creating. This means her works are often rich in detail allowing the viewer to slow down and allows time to reflect to absorb the work in the same way we do when we are in nature.
Chantal’s hope is that when people look at her work they are able to reflect on how beautiful the earth we call home really is and that they can slow down and allow the joy of the art to speak to them. In that way her audience can also find a sense of connection to nature that she feel’s is necessary to us living our best lives.