Painter and printmaker Margie Sheppard has lived and worked in the Adelaide Hills for over 35 years. Having spent many years working exclusively as a printmaker, she has in the last decade returned to painting. Both practices hold different but equally strong attractions and she divides her time between the two. Her new paintings and prints show a transition to the most simple forms, leaving behind the figuration of her previous work.

Margie graduated from the South Australian School of Art in Painting in 1973 and taught in the TAFE system early in her career. She has had more than 20 solo exhibitions in South Australia and interstate. She has also exhibited in New Zealand, Slovenia, Mexico, Korea and the USA and has been selected for a number of important print exhibitions such as the Fremantle Print Award, the Burnie Print prize and is also a three-time winner of the Whyalla Art Prize Print Award.

I work with etchings, paintings and woodcuts concurrently and, while they all have different qualities, they inform each other, creating a natural evolution in my visual language.

Paintings

I  love to immerse myself in large abstract paintings, putting colours and shapes together in unusual combinations. Getting the colour, shapes, spacial relationships and surfaces ‘right’ and the physicality of painting is completely absorbing and inspires me to keep creating, innovating and experimenting.

Etchings

My recent etchings have more symbolic elements for the viewer to read. Shape, texture and colour all play their part to give visual meaning. These large multi-plate etchings have been a significant part of my art practice for more than 30 years.

Woodcuts

My own version of woodcuts are my latest printmaking adventure. After many months of thinking through the process and collecting materials, I am now very excited to be making prints in a completely different way. The move to woodcuts was born out of a desire to abandon the toxic materials and complexity and increasing struggle associated with the large steel plates of my etching practice.

Download Margie’s CV here