Inside the World of Classical Realist Painter Hannah Sutton

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Hello, and welcome to the Art Podcast with me Chris Stafford. Well,
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this week we are going to go to Florence for
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a change. Now we've got someone joining us from Florence
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who's actually herself traveled a long way from near Melbourne, Australia.
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She's an export herself, just like me, and she now
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is residing in Florence and has I think had a
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wonderful It sounds idyllic career. Hannah Sutton, Welcome to the show.
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Thanks for having me. Chris.
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It sounds like the perfect journey that you've made as
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an artist.
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Oh it has. Oh, it definitely looks that way.
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I think especially people have a very idyllic, like a
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very idyllic view of Florence in their minds and the
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idea of like living in Florence and living in Italy
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and being a painter. It's definitely a very romantic ideal
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for a lot of people. But it is a lot
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of work. There's a lot of hard work that has
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come that has been done to get here, for sure.
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But yeah, it's I cannot complain.
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I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be able to
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live here.
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It sounds like, like I say, the perfect situation for you.
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Do you feel your way you need to be, want
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to be? This is you've kind of arrived in terms
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of your career.
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Definitely, I definitely feel that I have arrived and am
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settling into the work that I feel that I need
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to be making at this moment of my life.
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Yes, And like I said, you are a transplant just
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like me. But you've got along further. You from near
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I think near Melbourne, just northwest of Melbourne, not far
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out of and is it away.
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Yeah, I mean, I mean yeah, in Australia as far
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as fairly relative, Like it's about two hundred and fifty
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kilometers from Melbourne where I was born and raised on
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a farm, and then so fairly close. Melbourne was the
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nearest big city to our family farm. And then I
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lived in Melbourne for about ten years.
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Oh you did. Well, Let's go back to Sonana the farm.
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Were your parents still farming? Are they there still?
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Yes?
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Yea, my parents and my grandmother still lives on the farm,
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so they're still there.
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And you grew up there with your younger sister Naomi.
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What kind of childhood did you have? Did you have
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to roll up your sleeves and get to work every
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day as a child.
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Yeah, absolutely, I mean when you're like, we had three
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generations living on the farm near Saint Annad, a little
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hamlet like a farming community called Logan, and there's the
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farming families there are all multi generational farming families. So
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we've been there for quite a few generations. And so
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I grew up with my grandparents and my mum and
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dad and my sister and me, and we're all farming.
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You know, we're all working on the farm.
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Although like we're very much used to, you know, helping
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out dad if he needed us to drive the ued
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up the paddock, or even driving tractors and things like that,
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but or driving the forklift around to move things in
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the shed, helping to herd sheep or move move sheep around,
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that kind type of thing. However, definitely, my parents noticed
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that my sister and I were quite studious and really
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encouraged us to study and pursue our studies and to
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go to university. That was probably a really big generational
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difference in previous generations of the family were all quite like,
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very very hard workers, and luckily my parents really encouraged
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my sister and myself to pursue our studies. So I
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think from a young age we probably realized that we
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could get out of some farm work if we said
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that we had an assignment you or something like that.
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So what kind of farming you mentioned sheep? There was
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there anything else that you farmed?
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Yeah, we had sheep both for like prime lambs for meat,
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and also like marino sheep for wool, so the wool
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industry is still going. And also grain like cereal grain,
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so many many different types of cereal grain that we
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would have as well.
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So a little bit of both.
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Yeah, I've got a picture two daughters and on a
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sheep farm near Melbourne reminds me. It takes me right
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back to McLeod's Daughters. And if anybody I never watched
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that show my TV show, right, Yeah, it's really successful
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Australian TV drama McLeod's Daughter drove us was the farm
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right and McLeod's Store. Did you watch it?
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It's so funny.
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I didn't I because when you grew up on a
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farm and everything is farming, you are not interested at
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all in other farming stories. I couldn't watch McLeod's Daughters
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because it's.
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Just too close to home, you know, it was.
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It was funny because my cousins and who grew up
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in Geelong, like a nearby city and swan Hill. You know,
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they grew up in the city. They were much more
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enthusiastic about farming things than we were. My sister and
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I couldn't wait to go to the city and to
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embrace like other things, things that didn't have anything to
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do with farming.
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We were really.
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Interested in stuff like that because we were living on
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the farm and so we were I was constantly dreaming
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when I was growing up about being an artist and
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doing something else. And it's funny how now I'm a
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really long way away from the farm. It's very very
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dear to me, and I'm a lot more nostalgic and
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sentimental about about it because I'm so far away. But
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it's funny when you're growing up in it, you don't
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you don't know what you have, you don't appreciate. You
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just want to get out and explore the world. Yeah, yeah,
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get away from it.
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Yeah. And it's interesting, you know. And it's good obviously
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that your parents would encourage you both to do whatever
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you wanted to do because you academia. But the drawing
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and the sketching with you that started. The artwork started
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very young, didn't it tell us about the how it began,
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because you don't have any other artists in the family
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necessary with a paintbrush.
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No, I did well. I have to give credit to some.
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Of my family, especially my dad, who actually he was
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the only son in he had two other sisters, so
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he was the only son.
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He took over the farm, the.
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Family farm, and he has been farming his whole life
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and only has recently shifted away from that.
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That he was the kind of person. He would take.
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Up drawing lessons and drawing classes, he would go to
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life drawing classes, and he was the first person. My
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dad was actually the first person who introduced me to
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like life drawing classes. And accidentally, there was one time
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when we were going to life drawing classes and he
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was like, I really wanted to go with him because
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I really liked drawing people. And I was always like
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every kid, most kids love art and enjoy drawing, and
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I only encourage not to do it if somebody tells
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them that they're bad at it.
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And I was lucky that I wasn't told that I
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was bad at it. I was I was.
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I think I had enough, just enough natural talent to
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the people were really encouraging of my drawing, even though
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I was growing up in a farming community. And there
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was alex Yle who was an artist in Saint Annad,
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and there was enough artists in Snana that there was
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like a small artist community and they were doing like
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drawing classes, life drawing classes, and my dad would go
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and he absolutely loved life drawing and that they were
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all clothed like there were models, that they were all clothed.
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And then I asked to go along with him, and
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it was I would think I was twelve or thirteen
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at the time, and I'd come along with my dad
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to the life drawing class, and little did we know,
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it was the very first nude draw life drawing class
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that had ever been held in town.
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And when the model took her clothes off in.
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The town hall and everybody's gathered around to draw this
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nude figure, I think my dad went so red and
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he hid behind the easel and he said to me, like,
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I'm so sorry. I didn't I didn't realize that I
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was taking my like twelve year old daughter to a
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life drawing class like a nude life during class. He
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was absolutely mortified and he was like the body, he
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said something. He was trying to make it okay because
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he didn't want to like take me home. He was like,
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everybody is the body is like a sculpture. It is
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an artwork, and we're going to look at it as
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a work of art and because that's all it is.
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It's just it's just a body, and it's just a
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and we'll view it as a work of art and
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don't overthink it, don't think of it is any more
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than that. And after that, like, I really I loved
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drawing the figure. I thought it was so much fun,
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and I was really encouraged by everybody thought it was
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great that there was like somebody who was many years
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younger than any than the youngest person. The next youngest
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person was an adult, and so they thought it was
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great somebody as young as me was coming along to
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life drawing classes.
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And I just kept going.
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But it was yeah, it was my dad actually that
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took me to the first one.
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Well good for him, you know, handling it in the
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way he did so sensitively and you know, objectively, without
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traumatizing you as a twelve year old you know, because
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it could have been a negative experience. So good for
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him the way he handled.
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Yeah, and yeah, good to him, especially as like a
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farmer who has only daughters and who was always quite
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sensitive about like about that type of thing. And yeah,
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he couldn't have handled it any better.
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I don't think. I think he He.
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Framed for me a very very positive view of the
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human body from a very young age.
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That's awesome. That should that lead. But how about your mom, Sue,
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Was she in any way interested in arts and crafts?
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She has?
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My mom has an amazing sense of humor and is
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a very creative person when it comes to like drama
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and amazing writing skills, but not not necessarily like drawing
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or like any any like hand kind of crafts, but
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definitely as somebody. She actually grew up in Canada and
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a little bit in England as well. I have an
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English grandfather and they traveled a lot, and so I
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think her view of the world. Having come back to
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Australia as an adult and married a farmer and living
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on the farm, she she definitely instead of in viewing
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me like an an artist kind of mindset, she definitely
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gave me the spirit of adventure and like traveling the
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world and that all of that was possible, So I
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think she helped in that way.
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What kind of things did you do with your mum?
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Oh, that's a great question.
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I think we most of the time we were meet
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and my sister and my mum would just be very
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silly and laugh a lot and make jokes about things
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and put on silly accents or pretend to be silly
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characters and basically have like a impromptu comedy skit going
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at any time. So that.
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Was our house.
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We were a pretty silly household, and we laughed a lot,
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and we were quite We didn't take a lot seriously.
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When we were growing up.
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How about music, Yeah, music, Yes, I did.
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I liked playing I learned.
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I was kind of like, you have to pick an
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instrument when you're a kid, and I think, when you're
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a kid, this is a terrible thing. You were like
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forced to play an instrument, and mine was piano, and
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I felt like I was obliged to play a piano.
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And I really loved piano.
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But I had a little bit of a love hate
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relationship with it because I was very scared of exam
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and songs that I was forced.
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To learn that type of thing. I really didn't like that.
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I liked learning music from here.
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And when I was a teenager, I had a really
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big stage where I was like really into like punk
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rock music, and I played the guitar very badly.
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How about singing, Were you a family that sang together?
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Not really, No, No, we were a lot more like
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most of us, my dad and my sister and myself.
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We drew.
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We enjoyed drawing or illustrating things, so that was a
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little bit more about jam. We had so many pieces
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of work on the walls. We had like a gap,
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a salon kind of hang, and our walls were so
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full of art that it went all the way up
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to the ceiling. We had so much, so many paintings
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and drawings and things like that on the walls. Like
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that was our household, which is really weird for a
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farming house.
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A farmhouse, Yeah, it it seems like the indoors was
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very different to the outdoors.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I think we were a household that very much
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encouraged you to make things. I had friends who would
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visit me years as an adult. I would bring friends
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back to the farm and they would look around and
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they would. There is nothing from as far as the
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eye can see. It's very flat. There's just gum trees
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and paddocks and sheep and it's very very quiet because
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there's almost no other You can basically only see the
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other farmhouse like in the distance, and that's about it.
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And you know this, you've been to Australia.
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You know how isolating isolated parts of Australia can be.
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And this is really isolated. And it's very quiet. There's
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a quiet that almost presses down you at night. It's
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so quiet. And most people they look around and they
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are like, what do you do here?
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What is there to do?
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Because they're so used to being able to go to
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the movies or go to a bar, or go to
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a restaurant, and you can't do any of that. You
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have to make stuff for yourself or always if you
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want to be entertained, you have to make it. And
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we really want a TV family. It really wasn't encouraged
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to watch television or watch and so we made stuff.
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And it was you had to think of a project
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and work on that project.
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So we were all. You know, when I was asked
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once to help my dad.
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We were mixing grain and I was supposed to wait
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underneath the silos and mix grain. And I scratched a
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poem into every single silo, a little averse of a poem.
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You know.
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I would just keep myself entertained. And the poem is
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still there. It's Cloudsy of the Overflow by Benjo Pattison.
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I would just scratch things in or like draw things.
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I would.
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There's there's things that I basically graffited all around the farm,
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just like drawing things or making making little projects for myself.
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You just you invent things, and so your brain from
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a very young age is like you make stuff and
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that's how you keep yourself entertained.
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Yeah, no, I love that, And that's actually something that
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is dying now. Of course, especially in the cities that
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children would have a very different growing up experience to that.
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But I love that. I mean, I'm from an agricultural background,
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so I totally relate to that. And because you were
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on a sheep farm, presumably you rode.
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I love that you asked that question.
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Actually, since my grandfather's time, my pa, we haven't had.
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Horses on the farm.
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Yeah, you might be terribly disappointed to hear.
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This might disappoint you.
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Yeah, I'm sorry.
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My power would say, horses bite one end and kick
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the other.
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Yeah, I know, but they're very useful rounding up the sheep.
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Absolutely, yeah, it's true.
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I mean we instead we had a ute and lots
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of sheep dogs, and so you have like our at
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least at least one sheep dog, but we usually were,
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you know, and at the peak of farming, we were
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we had several sheep dogs. So yeah, so you grow
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up with the working dogs, yes, yeah, yeah, there but.
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No riding then, no.
315
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No riding, No, no riding, no motorbikes. I think it
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was that that, you know, in generations previous to mind,
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there were just too many accidents, and so it was
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just thought of to have a vehicle before we'll vehicle
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and and let the sheep dogs do a lot of
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the work or be on foot.
321
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Yeah.
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How how many sheep dogs did you have at any
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one time?
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Well, my paw was a really wonderful thing that my
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power would do is that he bred sheep dogs, and
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he realized how much my sister and I love loved
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having puppies around and how happy we were. Honestly, some
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of the happiest memories of my life is holding a
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bundle of puppies, and he would have he purposely would
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breed puppies. They had maybe three three litters or so
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of them, three lots of puppies over the years, and
332
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you know, we would have quite quite a few, you know, three, five,
333
00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:46.359
six dogs at some point in time, usually two or
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three dogs, but then there would always be puppies as well.
335
00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:52.559
Yeah, it was.
336
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Very and the worst thing is what they have to
337
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leave home, of course.
338
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Yeah yeah.
339
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And then some of them though, would be bought by
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neighboring farms, and so when those farmers would come and
341
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you know, a farmer arrives and you know a farmer
342
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would we would you'd pull in and visit each other's
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farms quite frequently, like checking in and things, and you
344
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got all you would always have all the dogs on
345
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the back, you know, two or three dogs, and some
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of those dogs would be our dogs, you know, all
347
00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:24.599
growing up, working dogs, and you'd you'd ask how they
348
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were doing, and you kind of check in with them
349
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and they'd remember you and and and you'd be very
350
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proud of them if they were good dogs.
351
00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:37.799
Yeah, yeah, No, it's a wonderful community and lifestyle for sure.
352
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Do miss it.
353
00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:44.039
Yeah, as I was saying it was, it feels much.
354
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I'm much more sentimental about it now because life is
355
00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:54.799
so different here and and you are trying to like
356
00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:00.319
assimilate in a new country. And you know, I I've
357
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:04.119
applied last year from my Italian citizenship, and I married
358
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:09.400
an Italian man, and so like life here, like I'm
359
00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:13.480
embracing like my Italian life here. Yeah, I've been here
360
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:17.839
for nine years, and so it's important to me that
361
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I am respectful of the culture and the and the
362
00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:25.119
country that I live in, that I reside in. But yeah,
363
00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:29.039
like you always draw comparisons back to your roots. You
364
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always say, whenever you're you see something that you find
365
00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:34.720
new or you're trying to make sense of when you're
366
00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:37.279
living in a new country, you have to compare it
367
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to what you grew up with, right, You're always going
368
00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:43.200
or how is this different? And you're trying to make
369
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sense of it all of the time, which is something
370
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:49.359
that we do. And so yeah, I grow a lot more,
371
00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:52.359
a lot more sentimental about you know, all of the
372
00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:56.599
positive things, things that I totally took for granted, the
373
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isolation and the quiet and the dry heat and droughts
374
00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:04.880
and and how you know, the kind of how precious
375
00:21:04.920 --> 00:21:08.839
some resources were, or the you know, all of the dogs,
376
00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:11.319
all of those things that you totally take for granted,
377
00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:13.000
or you almost you want to get away from when
378
00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:13.960
you're a young adult.
379
00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:16.279
You want to move away from it and go and
380
00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:17.240
explore other things.
381
00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:20.680
But then they're things that I find absolutely amazing and
382
00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:22.680
really special and unique.
383
00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:27.240
Now I wonder how much you see with your family.
384
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:31.680
I try to go back every year, and this year
385
00:21:31.720 --> 00:21:34.759
they're coming to me, they're visiting here.
386
00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:40.160
How do they feel about their daughter, who's obviously Hannah.
387
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:43.880
I mean, I look at your work and I talk
388
00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:48.519
to artists all the times. You know, you're enormously talented.
389
00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:52.359
And I'm wondering that young girl from the farm in
390
00:21:53.160 --> 00:22:00.039
Victoria transplanted to Florence and a completely different lifestyle and
391
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:04.720
hugely successful. Obviously what you do as a painter and
392
00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:10.599
a teacher as well, that couldn't be more of a contrast.
393
00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:15.960
I'm wondering how culturally you adjusted.
394
00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:22.599
I think luckily I moved at a time where I
395
00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:25.920
truly felt ready as a person, as a young adult
396
00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:29.680
to move, like I was really ready for change, and
397
00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:33.599
so I moved here when I was twenty seven, and
398
00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:40.920
I had already studied and established myself in Melbourne in
399
00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:45.240
the vocation that I had Initially, I had another creative.
400
00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:49.839
I studied design and I was working as a designer
401
00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:52.839
and illustrator in Melbourne. I had my own business, and
402
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:55.599
I felt confident enough that I was ready to move
403
00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.960
to another country. And sometimes in life, you feel like
404
00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:03.720
you're really ready for another chapter. And I felt really
405
00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:08.880
ready to embrace another chapter of my life. And I
406
00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:12.960
had known about the Fluence Academy of Art for many
407
00:23:13.079 --> 00:23:17.440
years when I was a very young adult, and I
408
00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:20.119
had wanted to go, and so I had set my
409
00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:23.079
sights on that for a long time and worked my
410
00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:26.440
way up towards it. So I felt so ready to
411
00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:32.480
be here, and mentally had been planning it and prepared
412
00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:34.640
to take the leap for quite a long time. It
413
00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:39.039
wasn't a sudden decision, and it was also I felt
414
00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:43.039
that if I didn't try to make a big shift
415
00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:46.359
like that at this particular point in my life, then
416
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:47.480
I was never going.
417
00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:47.920
To make it.
418
00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:51.000
That I would easily. You know, there's so many things
419
00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:54.480
in our adult life that tie us down. We can
420
00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:58.039
have a family, or children, or a mortgage, or a
421
00:23:58.119 --> 00:24:02.160
really intense career that we feel very stable in and
422
00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:05.240
we don't want to shake that up. And I had
423
00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:08.000
a feeling that looking at the way that everybody else's
424
00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:11.079
lives moved, I was like, if I don't do it
425
00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:13.480
now in my late twenties, I probably won't do this
426
00:24:13.559 --> 00:24:15.480
at all, or I'm going to need to wait until
427
00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:18.720
i'm you know, retired or something to make that move.
428
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:21.480
So I made it, and I never ever had any
429
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:22.559
second thoughts about it.
430
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:24.240
I didn't look back.
431
00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:29.160
I was it felt ready, and as soon as I
432
00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:33.400
got here, I made myself home. You know, I settled,
433
00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:37.480
I nested. I think some people don't like to do that,
434
00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:39.839
but I'm very much the type of person where the
435
00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:43.920
second I get somewhere, I try to I try to settle,
436
00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:48.599
as in I make I make my home as comfortable
437
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:53.839
as possible, and I find relationships and I find connections
438
00:24:53.880 --> 00:24:58.519
with people, and I find connections with people down the street,
439
00:24:58.759 --> 00:25:01.680
like at my local areas that I go to, and
440
00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:06.400
it's really important. And maybe this is the small town person,
441
00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:09.079
like I'm not a city person. I'm a little country
442
00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:11.960
town person, and I still behave that way, and I
443
00:25:12.039 --> 00:25:14.599
try to make a little community as much as possible,
444
00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:15.279
like knowing.
445
00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:17.559
Your neighbors and things like that.
446
00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:19.400
And I think that makes a big difference, and it
447
00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:21.960
really makes a difference to how people behave around you
448
00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:26.759
and how comfortable or connected you feel in wherever you
449
00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:27.599
are in the world.
450
00:25:29.720 --> 00:25:32.200
I'm wondering, you know, if we're going back to you
451
00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:36.559
went from primary school in Sonana to the Royal Melbourne
452
00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:41.680
Institute of Technology correct in Melbourne. How did you make
453
00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:44.559
those decisions and choices as to your career path at
454
00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:47.000
that You know, what kind of education college you wanted
455
00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.960
to go to before you went to Florence.
456
00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:52.880
Right, good question. I wanted.
457
00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:57.640
I was very studious in order to avoid doing farm work.
458
00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:02.279
Of course, I didn't want to drive any sheep. I
459
00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:07.880
was doing my homework. I was very studious, and I
460
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.920
really wanted to go to university. I wanted to go
461
00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:12.359
and study in Melbourne. And I wanted to be an artist.
462
00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:16.799
And I remember telling my parents that initially, I think
463
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:18.960
I told them that I wanted to be a musician,
464
00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:23.119
and they were immediately like, we would need to redirect
465
00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:28.160
her passions into something that might pay the bills. So
466
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:34.240
they were much more encouraging about me choosing a profession.
467
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:36.480
They were like, we love that you want to be
468
00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:39.480
an artist, but we also think it's a good idea
469
00:26:39.559 --> 00:26:42.039
if you maybe go to university to study something that
470
00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:48.559
is very creative, but and you know, help help to pay.
471
00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:49.359
The bills basically.
472
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:53.039
And so I went into graphic design first and I
473
00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:58.279
studied graphic designer RM I T or communication design and
474
00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:02.720
then I and when I graduated, I not only had
475
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:05.640
my own client base, but I also I worked at
476
00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:11.440
a place called Graphico, which is a graphic design studio
477
00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:16.079
in Melbourne, and they were wonderful. And then eventually I
478
00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.640
made my own I put it, set up my own
479
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:24.880
little business and had my own client base practically in
480
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:28.839
order to save more money to get to the Florence
481
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:32.559
Academy of Art. But yeah, I kind of was driven
482
00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:36.000
into that particular profession because I was encouraged to do
483
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:38.759
something that was a little bit more secure and stable
484
00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:40.400
as far as a vocation.
485
00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:42.279
Was concerned, and that for me was fine.
486
00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:45.519
I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get into r
487
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:50.799
MIT because it was a very competitive university program at
488
00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:53.599
the time and had a very competitive folio application. Like
489
00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:56.279
it was a portfolio application, so you had to have
490
00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:00.799
a really strong portfolio to get in and I was
491
00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:02.079
obsessed with that at the time.
492
00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:03.880
So that was a total dream come true.
493
00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:08.839
And I absolutely loved being a designer and I loved
494
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:10.039
being in the big city.
495
00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:12.519
And I thought that was really exciting and it was
496
00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:13.400
a whole new world.
497
00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:15.640
And I was like a you know, a country girl,
498
00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:19.160
a farm girl from a little you know, from from
499
00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:23.559
the middle of nowhere. And I absolutely loved suddenly finding
500
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:25.720
myself in the middle of this big city. I thought
501
00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:31.160
it was such an adventure. And yeah, I just like didn't.
502
00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:34.279
I was very naive. I didn't know anything about how
503
00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:38.720
to catch a tram or take the train or anything
504
00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:41.559
like that. I had no idea how anything worked, and
505
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:46.559
I had to figure it out by making pretty spectacular mistakes,
506
00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:51.200
you know. But like, yeah, just it was. It was great,
507
00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:57.039
But yeah it was. I found it really exciting. And
508
00:28:57.160 --> 00:29:00.119
then yeah, I did design. And then after a few
509
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:04.000
years working as a graphic designer, I met somebody who'd
510
00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:07.599
come back from the Florence Academy of Art and his
511
00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:11.480
name he was an artist named Richard Payne. He lives
512
00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:15.519
in Dalsford. Now he's a he's an artist. He's still
513
00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:19.599
still practicing, doing a little bit more abstract work now.
514
00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:24.200
But he had just he was just drawing, did the
515
00:29:24.279 --> 00:29:26.319
drawing program and he had come back and he was
516
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:28.920
I met him because I was friends with his son,
517
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:31.119
and we were at a barbecue at their house, and
518
00:29:31.160 --> 00:29:34.640
he was showing everybody his his drawings, his master copies
519
00:29:34.680 --> 00:29:37.640
that he was making. And when I saw when I
520
00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:40.480
saw that work, and I was working as a graphic
521
00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:43.400
designer and kind of wasn't doing it as much art
522
00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:47.279
as I really wanted to be doing, and felt like
523
00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:49.519
that was a that was part of my life that
524
00:29:49.640 --> 00:29:52.799
I had put on the back burner and was a
525
00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:56.119
little bit disappointed with myself for not really making as
526
00:29:56.200 --> 00:29:59.359
much art as I wanted to be making. And then
527
00:29:59.359 --> 00:30:03.240
when I saw Richard Payne's master copy drawings that he
528
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:07.240
had done at the Florence Academy, it was like an
529
00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:10.000
invitation from the universe. They were the most beautiful drawings
530
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:13.960
I had ever seen. I was I got goosebumps looking
531
00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:17.440
at them. It was like chills. It was a really
532
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:22.839
like incredibly physical experience where I looking at this work
533
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.480
and I thought, Okay, I have to This is a
534
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:29.960
pivotal moment. I am being called I absolutely have to
535
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.480
do exactly that. That is exactly what I need to
536
00:30:33.480 --> 00:30:37.920
be doing with my life. And basically made a promise
537
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:40.440
from that moment that I would do whatever it took
538
00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:44.799
to until I got there and did exactly that. So
539
00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:46.759
I was very inspired by him.
540
00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:51.720
That was the catalyst. Then, Yeah, yeah it was, And
541
00:30:51.799 --> 00:30:53.039
how did you make it happen?
542
00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:58.039
Very I was very embarrassed about it at first because
543
00:30:58.200 --> 00:31:03.319
I didn't want to. I basically quietly told him, like,
544
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:06.440
I also would very much like to go to the
545
00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:10.079
academy and I think it's really really great, and would
546
00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:11.039
you maybe teach.
547
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:12.599
Me something about what you learned there?
548
00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:15.519
And so he lived in Dalesford and I lived in Melbourne,
549
00:31:15.559 --> 00:31:17.519
and so he was like, sure, come over to the
550
00:31:17.559 --> 00:31:20.920
studio and I'll teach you some things about drawing that
551
00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:24.279
I learned. And I would go there on weekends and
552
00:31:24.319 --> 00:31:27.559
I was working as a graphic designer, so I would
553
00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:29.480
drive all the way to Dalesford on the weekends and
554
00:31:29.480 --> 00:31:33.079
we would do like life drawing classes. He would teach
555
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:36.039
me life drawing, he would teach me some of the
556
00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:39.279
techniques that he learned when he was there. And he
557
00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:42.000
was always like I'm going to be very very strict
558
00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:45.039
with you on this, because the Academy is incredibly strict,
559
00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:48.279
and it's very very it's very very competitive, and it's
560
00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:50.839
very very serious, and I'm not gonna if you want
561
00:31:50.839 --> 00:31:52.759
that experience that I'm not going to let up on you.
562
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.119
But he was so kind and so nice the entire time.
563
00:31:56.599 --> 00:32:00.640
We had a great fun drawing together. And you know,
564
00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.480
I would have to there was there's so few life
565
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:07.519
drawing models available that I would have to find somebody
566
00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:11.000
to model for us, drive them all the way from Melbourne.
567
00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:14.160
They would come with me and we would draw together.
568
00:32:14.200 --> 00:32:17.279
And that's how I started to learn. And it took
569
00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:21.400
me five years to save the money and to put
570
00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:25.039
together my portfolio to be accepted into the academy.
571
00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:30.319
Well, that must have been like a very disciplined time.
572
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:31.720
But ambition driven.
573
00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:38.000
Yeah, I mean, yes, definitely. But I think when you
574
00:32:38.119 --> 00:32:39.920
really really want something.
575
00:32:40.599 --> 00:32:43.799
When you're like I absolutely must have this thing, I
576
00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:49.559
know that there's no there's no other excuse, like you
577
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:52.079
you just start you start doing.
578
00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:53.680
It, like I would prefer.
579
00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:56.359
I know plenty of my friends, you know, would they
580
00:32:56.480 --> 00:32:58.759
do really fun things over the weekend. They do all
581
00:32:58.759 --> 00:33:01.519
sorts of amazing and really fun things. And I was
582
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:06.240
going to I was going to Dalstin and like drawing
583
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:09.640
for the for the weekend, and that was the thing
584
00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:12.160
that I did. And in the meantime, I was like
585
00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:15.920
working around the clock. As a twenty seven year old,
586
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:21.200
you don't necessarily know how to you don't necessarily value
587
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:24.200
your your time that much. And being a farm girl,
588
00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:25.640
I was just like, well, I'm just going to work
589
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:28.079
my butt off, and so I just I worked the
590
00:33:28.119 --> 00:33:30.720
rest of the time like a like a crazy person
591
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:32.720
to save up.
592
00:33:32.920 --> 00:33:36.640
How did you know? I mean, obviously saving up you're
593
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:40.160
as well, and by working as hard as you did,
594
00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:42.880
and you get to you a point where you were
595
00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:47.160
you were financially ready to move, but also with your artwork,
596
00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:50.160
at what point did you think your portfolio was like, Okay,
597
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:52.039
this is ready? Well you told did he tell you
598
00:33:52.359 --> 00:33:54.400
this is good enough? Now you could submit this?
599
00:33:56.440 --> 00:33:56.799
Not?
600
00:33:56.799 --> 00:33:57.359
Not really.
601
00:33:57.400 --> 00:33:59.359
I think I was just keeping an eye on the
602
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:03.000
application and things, and I thought all the applications are
603
00:34:03.079 --> 00:34:05.319
open now and they're going to close it a certain point,
604
00:34:05.359 --> 00:34:08.000
and I think I should do it. Like I just
605
00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:10.079
reached a threshold where I thought, okay, I'm going to
606
00:34:10.119 --> 00:34:12.239
be I'm going to be ready. And I remember having
607
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:16.599
a panic attack when I submitted my application because I
608
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:20.239
was very, very afraid that I wasn't good enough and
609
00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:23.519
my portfolio wasn't strong enough to get in because I
610
00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:28.079
knew how competitive it was, and so this I press
611
00:34:28.119 --> 00:34:31.039
submit and then like curled up into a ball on
612
00:34:31.119 --> 00:34:34.800
the floor in my apartment, being like, I've made a
613
00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:35.599
terrible mistake.
614
00:34:35.639 --> 00:34:37.159
I've just thrown years.
615
00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:40.119
Of drawing down the drain because they're not going to
616
00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:44.440
accept what I have made. And they did and it
617
00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:47.159
was fine, but there was definitely there was a feeling
618
00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:50.440
that I wasn't ready, because because when you have that
619
00:34:50.599 --> 00:34:53.679
much of a build up, like a five year build up,
620
00:34:54.039 --> 00:34:58.239
you kind of get settled into this frame of mind
621
00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:00.880
that you're like, it's still in future and you're not
622
00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:02.239
going to be ready yet.
623
00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:05.760
And then yeah, the lead up is too slow.
624
00:35:06.920 --> 00:35:09.760
Yeah I can imagine. But tell me the story of
625
00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:12.119
when you did get accepted and how it came to you.
626
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:12.840
Was it email?
627
00:35:13.480 --> 00:35:14.599
It was an email? Yeah?
628
00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:17.679
I wish it was like Harry Potter and an owl
629
00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:20.679
delivered it through my window my fireplace.
630
00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:22.480
That would have been That would have been awesome.
631
00:35:24.599 --> 00:35:27.119
That Yeah, I got an email that said that I
632
00:35:27.239 --> 00:35:31.719
was accepted, and I think, yeah, just this tremendous feeling
633
00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:39.199
of relief and thanks to the universe for accepting it,
634
00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:42.039
and then all of that work was worth it.
635
00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:44.440
But then like I hadn't really done.
636
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:47.880
I hadn't actually done anything yet, I hadn't made anything,
637
00:35:47.960 --> 00:35:50.480
like the work was just about to begin. So I
638
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:54.719
had to like pack up my life in Australia. I
639
00:35:54.800 --> 00:35:59.199
sold most of my possessions, my car, everything, and then
640
00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:01.360
I left the Florence.
641
00:36:02.119 --> 00:36:04.360
And what are the mediums were you working in at
642
00:36:04.360 --> 00:36:07.079
that time, then, Hannah, besides the work you knew that
643
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:08.679
you needed to get into the academy.
644
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:12.119
Yeah, I was working mostly in charcoal.
645
00:36:12.360 --> 00:36:15.920
So I was doing a lot of like figure figurative
646
00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:20.840
drawings in charcoal. That was my thing specifically, and I
647
00:36:20.920 --> 00:36:24.719
had made and I was making and selling work in
648
00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:30.039
charcoal that it was like figures or nudes or like
649
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:33.760
like draped figures in charcoal. So I was really comfortable
650
00:36:33.800 --> 00:36:38.599
in the charcoal medium, really comfortable drawing. But I hadn't
651
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:43.280
really painted in oils until I actually came and was
652
00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:45.920
a trained which is probably was probably for the best.
653
00:36:46.039 --> 00:36:48.800
But I was actually taking quite a big leap of faith.
654
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:54.000
Signing up to and spending my life savings on a
655
00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:57.360
painting program, having not having only drawn.
656
00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:01.719
Right that, Yeah, a big chaine there, lots of change.
657
00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:05.840
Is all happening at once, and now I'm guessing mostly
658
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:08.280
is it exclusively oils?
659
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:09.360
Yeah?
660
00:37:09.480 --> 00:37:12.400
I mean I still everything you can see because I'm
661
00:37:12.440 --> 00:37:14.280
in my studio at the moment. Everything you can see
662
00:37:14.280 --> 00:37:18.639
here is pinted and oils, either on linen or on
663
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:23.159
wood panel. But I also still draw, I mean drawing
664
00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:26.760
very much. Being a classical realist painter, drawing is the
665
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:29.559
foundation of everything. So I still draw in pencil and
666
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:30.199
in charcoal.
667
00:37:31.159 --> 00:37:35.880
Do you pinch yourself when you say I'm a classical
668
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:39.880
realist painter and I'm at the Florence Academy of Art.
669
00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:44.880
Is that a still a pinch me moment? Hannah?
670
00:37:45.079 --> 00:37:49.760
Yeah? Absolutely? Yeah. Sometimes it's like, oh, you can't say that.
671
00:37:50.920 --> 00:37:53.480
I think maybe this is like something that you do
672
00:37:53.519 --> 00:37:58.199
as a woman that you're like, you shouldn't. You shouldn't
673
00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:01.320
you shouldn't be allowed to say that sometimes or it
674
00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:04.639
seems a little bit too too much to say, But no,
675
00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:08.320
I are in that now, I have. It has been
676
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:10.840
a very a huge amount of work in a very
677
00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:11.679
long time coming.
678
00:38:12.119 --> 00:38:13.440
So yeah, it is.
679
00:38:14.039 --> 00:38:17.000
It is still though an out of body experience sometimes
680
00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:20.719
to say, yes, now I am a classical realist painter.
681
00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:24.599
And you must be obviously on a different level of
682
00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:28.400
confidence to what you were, you know, nine years ago
683
00:38:28.440 --> 00:38:33.159
when you arrived in Florence, when you go to work
684
00:38:33.199 --> 00:38:38.920
every day teaching, obviously you totally own and who you've
685
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:42.360
become and how what you've achieved as an artist as well.
686
00:38:43.079 --> 00:38:48.039
But in terms of women artists, because you know, we
687
00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:51.400
know what it looked like historically and in a compared
688
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:53.719
to men. And one of the reasons I did the show,
689
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.519
the main reason I did this show is to elevate
690
00:38:56.599 --> 00:39:01.639
women artists because we know that they have not been
691
00:39:01.679 --> 00:39:05.760
elevated in the way that men have historically. I'm wondering
692
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:10.519
if you have a sense whilst you're at the Academy
693
00:39:10.559 --> 00:39:14.599
in the you know, one of the most famous, you know,
694
00:39:14.679 --> 00:39:18.280
art economis in the world, you have a sense of
695
00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:22.000
your place in history now and what you can achieve
696
00:39:22.199 --> 00:39:25.880
as a mentor for other women artists as well. Do
697
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:31.480
you have a sense of your position and the importance
698
00:39:31.599 --> 00:39:35.760
of your role there now? Because you're so accomplished, and
699
00:39:36.599 --> 00:39:39.719
you know you've achieved so much yourself, but you're also
700
00:39:39.840 --> 00:39:46.360
giving back to the community of women artists particularly.
701
00:39:47.199 --> 00:39:50.000
Well that I have to say first thank you for
702
00:39:50.159 --> 00:39:53.079
the work that you're doing and making sure that you
703
00:39:53.480 --> 00:39:55.360
put a spotlight on women artists.
704
00:39:56.239 --> 00:40:01.000
I think that what I'm seeing is that this type
705
00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:02.000
of shift.
706
00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:06.239
With more women artists or women artists becoming more prevalent
707
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:10.880
in the world, in the art world, was inevitable because
708
00:40:11.440 --> 00:40:18.599
women are incredibly creative and love learning and love teaching,
709
00:40:19.480 --> 00:40:24.480
and so being they're they're very nurturing, they're very enthusiastic
710
00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:28.400
about learning, and so I think that now we have
711
00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:32.440
more of an even the most even playing field that
712
00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:37.559
there ever has been in this particular in this particular
713
00:40:37.599 --> 00:40:44.400
moment in history, that we're actually seeing more women being
714
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:52.000
being painters and sculptors and also instructors and going straight
715
00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:58.360
for getting the highest possible level of training. And most
716
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:01.360
of the time the people who come through the academy
717
00:41:01.960 --> 00:41:05.920
is that we have a much higher percentage of women
718
00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:09.639
coming to train, and that all of the people who
719
00:41:09.679 --> 00:41:12.800
come to train here at are adults and they are
720
00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:19.000
either professional artists or they have or they are coming
721
00:41:19.079 --> 00:41:25.559
back to retrain or you know, improve their skills, and
722
00:41:25.599 --> 00:41:29.280
they're most of them are practicing artists, and they're.
723
00:41:29.159 --> 00:41:30.559
They're overwhelmingly women.
724
00:41:31.519 --> 00:41:35.400
So this is I think, if you if you allow everybody,
725
00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:37.760
or if you allow as many people as possible, and
726
00:41:37.960 --> 00:41:41.719
especially with who have the privilege to be able to
727
00:41:41.760 --> 00:41:45.360
come to a place like Italy of course, and they
728
00:41:45.440 --> 00:41:48.079
have their financial ability to be able to come and
729
00:41:48.119 --> 00:41:53.440
to receive training abroad, then yeah, there there are so.
730
00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:55.400
Many women who are are wanting.
731
00:41:55.199 --> 00:41:59.760
To take take that up. And so I think, I'm
732
00:42:00.039 --> 00:42:03.519
I'm lucky to be born at the time that I was.
733
00:42:03.719 --> 00:42:07.840
I look at, let's say, some of the if I
734
00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:12.000
specifically look at Australia and I think about the Australian
735
00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:17.440
artists in the nineteenth century, the late eighteen nineties, let say,
736
00:42:17.599 --> 00:42:24.360
when Australian Impressionism real like Australian like Australian art was
737
00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:27.000
really on the up and up and starting to get
738
00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:30.440
a lot of international attention. That there are a lot
739
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:33.679
of women painters who are working really, really, really hard
740
00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:37.679
and never received the same kind of attention that their
741
00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:41.719
male counterparts ever did, even though the quality of their
742
00:42:41.719 --> 00:42:45.039
work was incredible and that they still got commissions and
743
00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:49.079
they were incredibly active in their communities and things like that,
744
00:42:49.079 --> 00:42:52.920
that they could only go so far because society wouldn't
745
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:56.320
actually allow them to. And I'm just in an incredible
746
00:42:56.400 --> 00:42:59.639
position of privilege where though I have worked for it,
747
00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:02.840
that I'm actually at a moment in history where I'm
748
00:43:02.840 --> 00:43:05.159
actually able to go as far as I want to
749
00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:12.079
go off my own merit, and I can work towards
750
00:43:12.119 --> 00:43:15.639
that goal if I want it. So I can't say
751
00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:20.760
that I'm just you know, I'm just really special because
752
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:23.960
I'm just born at a lucky time.
753
00:43:24.599 --> 00:43:26.880
I wasn't born in the eighteen nineties.
754
00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:31.239
I'm wondering which artists when you were younger then at
755
00:43:31.239 --> 00:43:33.840
the beginning of all this and getting inspired to have
756
00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:37.079
a career as an artist and not just a graphic artist,
757
00:43:37.719 --> 00:43:41.239
who were the artists that were inspiring you. Who's work
758
00:43:41.320 --> 00:43:42.039
did you admire?
759
00:43:44.280 --> 00:43:47.559
So I have to say I know a lot of people.
760
00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:50.360
I meet a lot of people who have an incredible
761
00:43:50.440 --> 00:43:54.840
art education or have an incredible like education when it
762
00:43:54.840 --> 00:43:59.599
comes to art history. From a young age, I wasn't
763
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:07.320
really so I wasn't really introduced into museums and art
764
00:44:07.400 --> 00:44:08.639
museums and things like that.
765
00:44:08.719 --> 00:44:10.360
There wasn't I knew.
766
00:44:10.519 --> 00:44:13.119
We would maybe go and see the Archibald Prize, the
767
00:44:13.760 --> 00:44:17.599
very big portrait painting prize that's on in Australia that's
768
00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:21.719
still running in Australia over one hundred years. But what
769
00:44:21.880 --> 00:44:25.079
we really didn't go to the museums. Instead, the art
770
00:44:25.159 --> 00:44:31.159
that I was exposed to was some Australian Impressionist painters
771
00:44:31.199 --> 00:44:35.920
because they have a very special place. Australian Impressionism has
772
00:44:35.960 --> 00:44:38.679
a very special place in the hearts of the farming
773
00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:46.039
communities in Australia, and so every every farm just about
774
00:44:46.119 --> 00:44:49.239
I could I could bet money that any farmhouse that
775
00:44:49.280 --> 00:44:53.480
you were walk into in country Australia has a print
776
00:44:53.719 --> 00:44:58.280
of an Australian Impressionist on their wall. It's usually one
777
00:44:58.320 --> 00:45:00.639
of two paintings down on his life Quich shows a
778
00:45:00.719 --> 00:45:05.000
swagman like looking at a fire alone in the bush
779
00:45:05.039 --> 00:45:09.320
in the Australian bush, or it might be Sharing the
780
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:14.280
Rams by Tom roberts An, another Australian painter, and just
781
00:45:14.519 --> 00:45:18.360
a shearing picture, like a beautiful picture of shearers shearing
782
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:21.960
the sheep in an old shearing shed in the eighteen hundreds,
783
00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:26.440
and those two pictures just captured the imagination of the
784
00:45:26.480 --> 00:45:31.039
farming communities in Australia and everybody had a print and
785
00:45:31.159 --> 00:45:35.679
including obviously my family. And it was those pictures that
786
00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:38.400
were in my head, is like, and when I was
787
00:45:38.440 --> 00:45:41.440
growing up, they were like the best painters ever and
788
00:45:41.480 --> 00:45:44.159
they were the best paintings that could ever be, and
789
00:45:44.239 --> 00:45:46.320
they were really good paintings. I still look at them
790
00:45:46.360 --> 00:45:48.679
and I'm amazed by them. They're beautiful.
791
00:45:50.039 --> 00:45:53.199
At what point did you develop your own style then
792
00:45:53.320 --> 00:45:56.559
when you did switch to oils?
793
00:45:57.400 --> 00:46:01.360
I mean the training program Florence Academy of Art is
794
00:46:01.440 --> 00:46:06.079
very rigorous and it teaches you the fundamentals of drawing
795
00:46:06.119 --> 00:46:11.320
and painting as a craft skill. So you're learning and
796
00:46:11.719 --> 00:46:17.039
all of the a very well established toolkit of how
797
00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:23.079
to draw and paint in a classically in a classical style,
798
00:46:23.159 --> 00:46:26.880
in a classical way, and you're learning like the correct
799
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:30.840
techniques how to correctly use paint, like how much paint
800
00:46:30.880 --> 00:46:34.960
to use, how to how much medium to mix into
801
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:37.159
the oil paint, or how to grind your own paint
802
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:40.400
and prepare your own materials, and all of that gives
803
00:46:40.440 --> 00:46:44.599
you like a baseline for how to work with the
804
00:46:44.639 --> 00:46:48.679
medium correctly on top of that, if you're just chasing
805
00:46:49.119 --> 00:46:53.760
the right, like objectively right thing to be doing when
806
00:46:53.800 --> 00:46:56.000
it comes to the drawing or when it comes to
807
00:46:56.079 --> 00:46:59.000
the painting, I think your natural style emerges because we
808
00:46:59.039 --> 00:47:01.920
all just have like and writing, we all just have
809
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:07.679
a natural way of making a mark and we can't
810
00:47:07.760 --> 00:47:10.639
help it, and that just ends up being your style.
811
00:47:11.719 --> 00:47:13.000
It just how you.
812
00:47:13.199 --> 00:47:16.960
Hold the rush, how you put the mark down. You
813
00:47:17.119 --> 00:47:22.079
actually can't help it. It was never intentionally developed. It
814
00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:25.119
was just having a really thorough training of how to
815
00:47:25.239 --> 00:47:28.960
use the materials and then it comes out all by itself.
816
00:47:29.119 --> 00:47:32.880
And that happened, like I would say, in my third year,
817
00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:36.000
really felt like that that had started to come out.
818
00:47:36.400 --> 00:47:40.920
And then now I'm working on subject matter of my own,
819
00:47:41.079 --> 00:47:45.199
choosing and making works of my own, choosing and exploring
820
00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:52.519
ways to describe nature in paint, it comes out even more.
821
00:47:53.800 --> 00:47:57.320
Do you paint Australian landscapes at all? Do you ever
822
00:47:57.400 --> 00:47:59.960
have that image in your mind of you know, cheap
823
00:48:00.079 --> 00:48:03.760
sharing in the barn and I think I need to
824
00:48:03.800 --> 00:48:06.000
create one of those and send it back home.
825
00:48:06.920 --> 00:48:08.599
Yeah, yeah, totally.
826
00:48:09.119 --> 00:48:14.480
I actually just finished a commission where somebody asked me
827
00:48:14.800 --> 00:48:21.480
to make a painting of the neighboring farm and so
828
00:48:21.880 --> 00:48:26.119
our our neighbors who are also farmers. And I made
829
00:48:26.159 --> 00:48:30.239
a big painting of the farmstead of our next door
830
00:48:30.239 --> 00:48:36.199
neighbors and it was really beautiful. Idea, this Nathan Grigg,
831
00:48:36.280 --> 00:48:40.360
he wanted to propose to one of the farmer's daughters
832
00:48:41.480 --> 00:48:45.280
on that farm, the Coombs's farm, and he really wanted
833
00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:48.280
to ask for her hand, but he knew she wanted
834
00:48:48.320 --> 00:48:50.679
to choose her rings. So he thought, I'm going to
835
00:48:50.840 --> 00:48:53.960
get a painting made of her favorite place in the world.
836
00:48:54.360 --> 00:48:58.280
And so he asked me to be having known the
837
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:00.760
farm very well, he asked me to make a painting
838
00:49:00.760 --> 00:49:02.440
of it and that was really special and that was
839
00:49:02.440 --> 00:49:05.559
actually the first time that I'd made a major painting
840
00:49:06.400 --> 00:49:09.840
of Australia, specifically of the of the land.
841
00:49:10.559 --> 00:49:13.440
I love that till it take us back to when
842
00:49:13.480 --> 00:49:17.920
you actually graduated from the Academy and found your position
843
00:49:18.840 --> 00:49:24.920
permanent position here as an instructor. Was this something that
844
00:49:24.960 --> 00:49:27.880
you think as you were going through the academy as
845
00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:30.679
a student, thinking maybe I could you know, get a
846
00:49:30.760 --> 00:49:32.280
job here and stay here forever?
847
00:49:33.239 --> 00:49:34.239
Just maybe?
848
00:49:34.519 --> 00:49:40.199
Yeah, I definitely they they have in the third year.
849
00:49:40.239 --> 00:49:41.960
But when you start coming to the end of your
850
00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:46.239
third year, they have an opportunity that arises. It's called
851
00:49:46.280 --> 00:49:49.880
the Fourth Year Prize, or it was was colloquial and
852
00:49:50.039 --> 00:49:53.639
known as the fourth Year Prize, and it's a fourth
853
00:49:53.760 --> 00:49:57.639
year graduate and residency program that they offer to three
854
00:49:57.920 --> 00:50:03.719
or four painted or new graduates from the Advanced Painting
855
00:50:03.760 --> 00:50:06.400
program and they get to stay and they get to
856
00:50:07.360 --> 00:50:11.480
they get to stay for one year at the Academy,
857
00:50:11.960 --> 00:50:15.400
and they get a bit of experience teaching in the
858
00:50:16.239 --> 00:50:20.400
program as well, and they get to they have studio
859
00:50:20.480 --> 00:50:22.440
access and they get to make their own work for
860
00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:25.119
a year, and I did. I was very lucky because
861
00:50:25.440 --> 00:50:29.880
it was just after COVID and like twenty twenty one,
862
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:34.280
and I was very very lucky that actually a lot
863
00:50:34.280 --> 00:50:37.800
of people were like, I really just want to go home.
864
00:50:37.960 --> 00:50:41.840
This has been a really hard They weren't allowed to
865
00:50:41.880 --> 00:50:45.239
go home or were I won't go into that. We
866
00:50:45.360 --> 00:50:48.280
are all locked down for a very long time, and
867
00:50:49.360 --> 00:50:50.679
a lot of people wanted to go home. But I
868
00:50:50.760 --> 00:50:54.960
really wanted to stay because I had met the love
869
00:50:55.039 --> 00:50:58.639
of my life, my husband and I now husband, Alessandro,
870
00:50:59.320 --> 00:51:03.559
and he and he was here and he's from Florence,
871
00:51:03.599 --> 00:51:06.679
and we were living together, and we definitely wanted to stay,
872
00:51:06.719 --> 00:51:10.760
and I thought, what there would be no two better
873
00:51:10.800 --> 00:51:13.159
things in this world than to be able to stay
874
00:51:13.159 --> 00:51:15.880
with him and to be able to work at this
875
00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:20.159
place that I love so much. And so after the
876
00:51:20.159 --> 00:51:22.320
fourth year Prize, well, I did my very best and
877
00:51:22.559 --> 00:51:25.039
I made it very very clear to the academy that
878
00:51:25.119 --> 00:51:27.559
I wanted to, that I wanted to stay, and I
879
00:51:27.639 --> 00:51:28.480
was here to stay.
880
00:51:28.920 --> 00:51:29.519
And I think that.
881
00:51:29.559 --> 00:51:34.679
Helps when you express very clearly your intentions, right and
882
00:51:34.760 --> 00:51:37.400
you say, I love it here, I want to I
883
00:51:37.480 --> 00:51:39.400
want to stay, and I want to do what I can,
884
00:51:39.719 --> 00:51:43.920
and then people people are aware then and they might
885
00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:46.400
make things more possible for you. And I think that
886
00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:50.960
I got lucky, but I maybe was in the right
887
00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:55.239
place at the right time. But also I worked really
888
00:51:55.280 --> 00:51:57.360
hard and they obviously like what I did, and I
889
00:51:57.440 --> 00:52:01.800
was able to. I was offered a teach position at
890
00:52:01.840 --> 00:52:04.760
the end of my residency, and so I stayed.
891
00:52:05.320 --> 00:52:07.360
And at that point you must have felt that you
892
00:52:07.400 --> 00:52:09.920
had really landed. You'd landed the love of your life
893
00:52:09.920 --> 00:52:11.159
and the job of your life.
894
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:11.760
Yeah.
895
00:52:11.880 --> 00:52:16.039
Yeah, I was absolutely on cloud nine, cloud ten.
896
00:52:16.599 --> 00:52:21.800
Like it could. I thought that I had a dream
897
00:52:21.840 --> 00:52:22.360
come true.
898
00:52:22.360 --> 00:52:26.840
Moment of being able to graduate, even if even though
899
00:52:26.840 --> 00:52:28.920
that happened at the end of COVID, it was kind
900
00:52:28.960 --> 00:52:34.599
of extra extra difficult, extra difficulty or difficulty level, like
901
00:52:34.679 --> 00:52:38.719
extra hard at the end there. But it was even
902
00:52:38.800 --> 00:52:41.239
better to be able to stay because I really wanted
903
00:52:41.239 --> 00:52:44.800
to and and to get the to get that opportunity
904
00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:48.760
to teach, and and it was Yeah, I've been super lucky.
905
00:52:48.800 --> 00:52:52.079
I've also managed I've had I have a studio here
906
00:52:52.159 --> 00:52:55.840
as well, so that's been that's been really awesome.
907
00:52:57.159 --> 00:53:00.599
At what point did you start selling your work. Was
908
00:53:00.599 --> 00:53:02.800
it as a student or even before then while you
909
00:53:02.840 --> 00:53:03.960
went Australia.
910
00:53:04.159 --> 00:53:08.760
Yeah, I was selling my work even before I went
911
00:53:08.800 --> 00:53:11.119
to the academy. But even though I didn't have I
912
00:53:11.159 --> 00:53:13.920
didn't make a lot of shows, like I didn't exhibit
913
00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:14.960
my work very much.
914
00:53:15.039 --> 00:53:16.760
But I was really lucky that.
915
00:53:18.239 --> 00:53:20.360
When I did exhibit my work, it was really well
916
00:53:20.400 --> 00:53:23.599
supported and really well received and people would I got
917
00:53:23.599 --> 00:53:27.079
positive feedback from people that they liked what I was
918
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:29.719
doing and they they wanted to buy it, which was
919
00:53:29.880 --> 00:53:35.480
very encouraging. And when I was studying, I would sometimes
920
00:53:35.559 --> 00:53:39.159
send work back to Australia and have it exhibited in
921
00:53:39.239 --> 00:53:43.079
local shows, and it was also really well received and
922
00:53:43.159 --> 00:53:44.880
so especially.
923
00:53:44.440 --> 00:53:46.880
By my local community.
924
00:53:48.119 --> 00:53:51.840
I did even go back in twenty twenty three and
925
00:53:51.880 --> 00:53:55.960
I had a solo show at a gallery in my hometown,
926
00:53:56.719 --> 00:54:00.760
and it felt as if the entire town showed up
927
00:54:00.760 --> 00:54:06.840
for me to be there and my work everything sold out,
928
00:54:07.079 --> 00:54:11.559
everything sold and it was like, it was absolutely wonderful.
929
00:54:11.760 --> 00:54:16.039
It was, it was, it was a dream come true.
930
00:54:16.079 --> 00:54:19.519
I think that was. I don't think I'll ever have
931
00:54:20.559 --> 00:54:23.920
a better show than that one, because it was the
932
00:54:24.400 --> 00:54:26.960
it was exactly where I grew up, and it was
933
00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:30.000
the people who encouraged me to make the work and
934
00:54:30.039 --> 00:54:34.360
who had followed the journey. And it was a farming community, right,
935
00:54:34.440 --> 00:54:37.719
you don't expect people to be art collectors there, and
936
00:54:37.800 --> 00:54:40.599
they showed up and they bought paintings and it was
937
00:54:40.719 --> 00:54:45.119
absolutely wonderful. That was That was the absolute best, because
938
00:54:45.159 --> 00:54:47.199
a lot of people say things like you can't be
939
00:54:47.239 --> 00:54:50.440
a hero in your hometown and that maybe you know,
940
00:54:51.519 --> 00:54:56.119
people aren't interested if you're trying to make like art
941
00:54:56.639 --> 00:54:59.039
and you know, you know, and you're from a place
942
00:54:59.079 --> 00:55:04.719
that isn't particular, well it's a it's a fairly rural community.
943
00:55:05.599 --> 00:55:07.199
But no, actually the opposite.
944
00:55:07.480 --> 00:55:10.880
People are really enthusiastic about it and they're really they're
945
00:55:10.920 --> 00:55:15.079
really wonderful supporters, and that's that's really amazing.
946
00:55:16.920 --> 00:55:18.159
Yeah, it's really special.
947
00:55:18.599 --> 00:55:21.599
Well, the people that mean the most to you, and
948
00:55:21.639 --> 00:55:26.719
that means that's validation right there. I imagine you've really
949
00:55:26.760 --> 00:55:30.679
felt that everything that you're working towards and the recognition.
950
00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:34.840
Of course, we all need validation right at some point,
951
00:55:35.320 --> 00:55:37.639
But that seems to me that you've gone the full
952
00:55:37.719 --> 00:55:41.800
circle there and all of it was worthwhile. Was there
953
00:55:41.880 --> 00:55:46.079
any any ever point, a point maybe when you graduated
954
00:55:46.119 --> 00:55:50.320
and that you question whether you'd actually make it professionally,
955
00:55:50.360 --> 00:55:54.159
make enough money as an artist to be a professional artist?
956
00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:56.280
Totally? I think.
957
00:55:57.480 --> 00:56:02.559
I think that's basically a right of passage for any artist.
958
00:56:02.719 --> 00:56:07.199
When they kind of learn how to do the.
959
00:56:08.760 --> 00:56:11.800
That well, for me, I trained, and I learned how
960
00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:14.000
to do the thing, and then it comes time to
961
00:56:14.039 --> 00:56:18.039
actually do the thing, and and you're basically you don't
962
00:56:18.039 --> 00:56:19.320
have a curriculum anymore.
963
00:56:19.480 --> 00:56:20.960
You're not showing up to class.
964
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:24.400
You have to show up to your studio and you
965
00:56:24.440 --> 00:56:25.920
have to make work, and you have to decide what
966
00:56:26.039 --> 00:56:29.320
that work is going to be, and you it's up
967
00:56:29.360 --> 00:56:32.000
to you to decide what it is. It's up to
968
00:56:32.039 --> 00:56:35.480
you to decide when you exhibit and where you exhibit
969
00:56:35.519 --> 00:56:36.760
and how much you sell it for.
970
00:56:36.840 --> 00:56:40.440
And nobody nobody's telling you what to do. You don't
971
00:56:40.480 --> 00:56:42.039
have any deadlines.
972
00:56:42.360 --> 00:56:45.840
If you don't make it, nobody nobody knocks on your
973
00:56:45.880 --> 00:56:50.480
studio door and is like, hey, that exhibition, where is it?
974
00:56:50.559 --> 00:56:54.239
Like people at the for the first years, nobody's putting
975
00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:56.840
pressure on you to do that. And so it's and
976
00:56:56.920 --> 00:57:00.519
also you're kind of terrified because you don't know how
977
00:57:00.559 --> 00:57:03.360
to use your voice yet. You haven't been really practicing
978
00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:06.519
how to use it other than for the projects that
979
00:57:06.559 --> 00:57:14.719
are part of a school curriculum. And yeah, I just
980
00:57:15.679 --> 00:57:21.800
I tried to continue to paint and make some work,
981
00:57:21.880 --> 00:57:25.159
and a lot of that work just looked like some
982
00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:28.440
of it was experimental, And so I was just trying
983
00:57:28.519 --> 00:57:33.079
things out and making like taking risks and making kind
984
00:57:33.119 --> 00:57:38.760
of paintings that were not they weren't necessarily always good.
985
00:57:38.840 --> 00:57:42.360
Some of them kind of failed, and I was like, Okay,
986
00:57:42.400 --> 00:57:44.000
I'm going to put that in the cupboard and I'll
987
00:57:44.039 --> 00:57:47.519
never show anybody ever. And you have this kind of
988
00:57:48.519 --> 00:57:53.480
vicious like a voice in the back of your head going, oh,
989
00:57:53.480 --> 00:57:56.480
this is no good. You probably shouldn't you should stop
990
00:57:56.480 --> 00:57:59.559
making that, or you should definitely make something a little
991
00:57:59.559 --> 00:58:05.519
bit better and that, and then you other other paintings
992
00:58:05.559 --> 00:58:07.519
that you make are probably a little bit more in
993
00:58:07.559 --> 00:58:09.519
line with the things that you were taught how to make,
994
00:58:09.960 --> 00:58:12.960
and your internal voices like, well, this is good, this
995
00:58:13.039 --> 00:58:15.880
is this is better. You should be making this type
996
00:58:15.880 --> 00:58:17.519
of thing, and so you try to make some more
997
00:58:18.239 --> 00:58:22.239
of that, and it's very very difficult because that that particular,
998
00:58:22.920 --> 00:58:26.599
like you're you can keep on a habit making the
999
00:58:26.679 --> 00:58:29.119
exact same work that you were trained how to make,
1000
00:58:29.800 --> 00:58:32.360
or you could start making work that's more meaningful to
1001
00:58:32.400 --> 00:58:36.280
you and risk for it to be to once again
1002
00:58:36.360 --> 00:58:39.840
go back to learning and maybe making things that are
1003
00:58:39.880 --> 00:58:44.679
not up to the level that you were trained. For example,
1004
00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:47.920
like in the Advanced Painting program in the final year,
1005
00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:52.360
you're making really you're you're spending five weeks on a
1006
00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:57.360
single painting, and you're really like you're you're trying to
1007
00:58:57.400 --> 00:59:00.880
be as academic as possible, so you spend you have
1008
00:59:00.920 --> 00:59:05.480
a lot of model time, you have critiques every single day.
1009
00:59:05.599 --> 00:59:08.320
People you know, these very very experienced paintings are coming
1010
00:59:08.360 --> 00:59:11.559
by and giving you really really helpful instruction, and so
1011
00:59:11.679 --> 00:59:15.239
obviously you're making work that is really really strong, and
1012
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:18.960
everybody around you is also they're making really strong work
1013
00:59:19.119 --> 00:59:21.400
and receiving the same critiques and showing up to the
1014
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:25.440
same class, and so it's amazing. And you suddenly get
1015
00:59:25.440 --> 00:59:30.239
out of that world and you're all by yourself, and
1016
00:59:30.280 --> 00:59:32.760
the model isn't there unless you book them in yourself
1017
00:59:32.800 --> 00:59:35.719
and pay them yourself, and the work isn't and there's
1018
00:59:35.760 --> 00:59:38.840
nobody coming by to give you a critique every single
1019
00:59:38.920 --> 00:59:41.159
day or twice a day or four times a day,
1020
00:59:41.679 --> 00:59:44.599
so it's all up to you. And that's really really hard.
1021
00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:47.840
And I think that and like everybody, I went through
1022
00:59:48.039 --> 00:59:51.960
a good while, I would say a year or two
1023
00:59:52.480 --> 00:59:56.519
of being really uncertain about exactly where I wanted to
1024
00:59:56.559 --> 00:59:58.239
go with things and what I wanted to make.
1025
01:00:00.079 --> 01:00:03.519
How much of your time is spent? How do you
1026
01:00:03.559 --> 01:00:06.880
divide your time between your instructing them at the academy
1027
01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:09.320
and your own time in the studio?
1028
01:00:09.400 --> 01:00:11.639
Now, Hannah, yeah, good question.
1029
01:00:12.960 --> 01:00:18.599
I Now we deliver seven short courses a year because
1030
01:00:18.800 --> 01:00:22.079
I'm the program director of the five week intensive course
1031
01:00:22.239 --> 01:00:25.719
in Drawing, Painting and Art History, and that five week
1032
01:00:25.760 --> 01:00:31.679
intensive course is delivered. We have seven of them every year.
1033
01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:34.760
Now we have eight of them a year. And so
1034
01:00:35.440 --> 01:00:40.880
while those courses are being run, I am I'm instructing
1035
01:00:41.039 --> 01:00:43.719
two and a half days a week, and then I'm
1036
01:00:43.800 --> 01:00:46.000
in my studio the other the rest of the time.
1037
01:00:47.000 --> 01:00:50.239
But then when the courses are not running, I'm in
1038
01:00:50.320 --> 01:00:54.440
here doing like I have a lot more time to
1039
01:00:54.519 --> 01:00:58.400
spend on my art. And so yeah, it's a little
1040
01:00:58.400 --> 01:01:01.039
bit of each. And also I run very seasonally. So
1041
01:01:01.880 --> 01:01:04.480
in the winter time, I'm in my studio more often,
1042
01:01:04.559 --> 01:01:07.519
I'm doing things like still life painting and portrait painting
1043
01:01:08.239 --> 01:01:09.719
while the while the.
1044
01:01:09.679 --> 01:01:10.840
Weather's kind of cold.
1045
01:01:11.159 --> 01:01:15.039
And then when it's springtime or early summer, I'm outdoors
1046
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:18.519
because I like painting enplanaire like I like to be
1047
01:01:18.559 --> 01:01:19.199
out and about.
1048
01:01:20.320 --> 01:01:26.159
You're in Italy, You're in Florence. Exactly how much of
1049
01:01:26.199 --> 01:01:27.239
your work is commissioned?
1050
01:01:27.280 --> 01:01:27.440
Then?
1051
01:01:27.559 --> 01:01:27.800
Now?
1052
01:01:29.599 --> 01:01:33.639
Oh, I mean, I'm I'm definitely taking on an increasing
1053
01:01:33.679 --> 01:01:38.440
amount of commissions, and just because the inquiries are coming
1054
01:01:38.480 --> 01:01:42.440
in and they might be for portraits and landscapes or
1055
01:01:42.480 --> 01:01:46.519
figures in portraits in a landscape.
1056
01:01:46.039 --> 01:01:49.559
Or a in a in a in an area like
1057
01:01:49.679 --> 01:01:50.679
in a setting.
1058
01:01:52.119 --> 01:01:55.920
But most of my work still is work that I
1059
01:01:56.039 --> 01:01:58.679
choose to make, like a body of work that I
1060
01:01:58.760 --> 01:02:01.280
choose to make. But I would a fair bit of
1061
01:02:01.360 --> 01:02:05.320
my time at the moment is split between like making
1062
01:02:06.159 --> 01:02:08.719
making commissions, which is great as well.
1063
01:02:10.119 --> 01:02:12.280
And when you're not painting, what do you do for fun?
1064
01:02:12.360 --> 01:02:17.679
Do you enjoy outdoor activities or sports or what do
1065
01:02:17.719 --> 01:02:19.000
you enjoy cooking?
1066
01:02:20.599 --> 01:02:24.960
I mean, yes, definitely being being in Italy, Like my
1067
01:02:25.039 --> 01:02:29.360
husband is an amazing cook, being Italian, and so a
1068
01:02:29.400 --> 01:02:34.559
lot of our our life revolves around food and food
1069
01:02:34.639 --> 01:02:39.679
preparation or traveling a really long way to experience food,
1070
01:02:39.880 --> 01:02:42.960
like a specific type of food. So the ritual of
1071
01:02:43.000 --> 01:02:46.960
food is huge here. It's just part of life. It's
1072
01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:50.880
a it's a really important ritual like making things from
1073
01:02:50.920 --> 01:02:56.639
scratch and and that's really really important. But yeah, I mean,
1074
01:02:57.400 --> 01:03:00.679
he works in it, and so he's very technical, logically
1075
01:03:01.440 --> 01:03:05.480
minded and thinking about technology all the time. So I
1076
01:03:05.559 --> 01:03:08.840
actually I'm a bit influenced by him on this. But
1077
01:03:08.960 --> 01:03:12.920
I actually game a bit like I might I might
1078
01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:16.320
play some games on PlayStation.
1079
01:03:16.559 --> 01:03:19.320
Which might be an unexpected answer.
1080
01:03:20.159 --> 01:03:24.440
But yeah, I mean I don't have Yeah, I could
1081
01:03:24.480 --> 01:03:25.960
probably say gaming or reading.
1082
01:03:26.519 --> 01:03:27.760
I enjoy reading.
1083
01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:29.599
What's on Your Nightstand?
1084
01:03:31.039 --> 01:03:34.800
Oh, I'm I'm really into it thanks to another artist
1085
01:03:34.880 --> 01:03:40.119
friend who's introduced me to Clarissa pink or Leestes, who
1086
01:03:40.440 --> 01:03:44.440
wrote Women Who Run with Woltz, and she has a
1087
01:03:44.480 --> 01:03:48.840
beautiful book called The Creative Fire as well. I thought
1088
01:03:48.880 --> 01:03:51.880
I thought that was a It was a three myths
1089
01:03:52.679 --> 01:03:55.280
and legends about creativity.
1090
01:03:55.800 --> 01:03:57.519
I found that really inspiring.
1091
01:03:58.119 --> 01:03:59.840
Well, I'm going to come back to the food now,
1092
01:04:00.079 --> 01:04:02.440
because this is when you get to tell me who
1093
01:04:03.079 --> 01:04:06.639
you're going to invite to your dinner party. Six guests,
1094
01:04:06.800 --> 01:04:09.239
living or dead is coming to dinner.
1095
01:04:10.440 --> 01:04:13.239
Okay, so my list is.
1096
01:04:15.400 --> 01:04:22.199
The philosopher Alan Watts is one of my sister sister Wendy,
1097
01:04:22.719 --> 01:04:26.400
who's the nun an art historian who is really big
1098
01:04:26.440 --> 01:04:31.480
in the nineties who just talks about art and paintings
1099
01:04:31.519 --> 01:04:40.239
like like nobody else. Also, oh, I mispronounced pink le Estes.
1100
01:04:40.360 --> 01:04:44.079
The author that I just mentioned a Camille. Sorry pink
1101
01:04:44.119 --> 01:04:49.760
orl Estes, I think I said mispronounced her name before Claude.
1102
01:04:50.800 --> 01:04:51.320
Everybody.
1103
01:04:51.760 --> 01:04:53.920
Everybody is dead, everybody has passed.
1104
01:04:53.920 --> 01:04:57.239
I'm bringing everybody back to life because I thought that
1105
01:04:57.320 --> 01:04:59.599
it would be very interesting to have conversations with all
1106
01:04:59.599 --> 01:05:03.719
of them, Questions for questions for a lot. Oh sorry,
1107
01:05:03.800 --> 01:05:07.960
I'm close to think Camilla. Think al Estes is still alive.
1108
01:05:08.159 --> 01:05:12.719
I believe so sorry that she's she's she's uh, the
1109
01:05:12.800 --> 01:05:14.639
only living but Salvador Dally.
1110
01:05:15.239 --> 01:05:17.079
Oh now, why have you picked.
1111
01:05:17.199 --> 01:05:18.679
And Ernest Shackleton?
1112
01:05:20.079 --> 01:05:24.559
I wanted to pick Ernest because I just have I
1113
01:05:24.599 --> 01:05:29.840
feel like he is he is the one of the
1114
01:05:29.880 --> 01:05:34.400
most interest his story of you know, sailing to Antarctica,
1115
01:05:34.920 --> 01:05:38.360
and his story about you know, the endurance, like his
1116
01:05:38.480 --> 01:05:42.480
ship sinking into the ice, and how he managed to
1117
01:05:43.360 --> 01:05:48.760
I think he managed to lead his whole crew to safety.
1118
01:05:49.440 --> 01:05:51.920
It took many, many months. They he got on the
1119
01:05:51.920 --> 01:05:54.599
boat and came all the way back and then returned
1120
01:05:54.800 --> 01:05:57.800
for them to pick them up, and nobody died. I
1121
01:05:57.880 --> 01:06:00.639
just think that is the most incredible story of leadership.
1122
01:06:01.079 --> 01:06:04.840
I think that's possibly one of the most amazing leaders
1123
01:06:07.000 --> 01:06:09.360
I have ever I have ever heard of, And so
1124
01:06:09.440 --> 01:06:13.000
I would love to ask him about I would love
1125
01:06:13.039 --> 01:06:16.760
him to share his story at dinner about what he
1126
01:06:16.840 --> 01:06:20.119
had to endure. And also I think he would really
1127
01:06:20.159 --> 01:06:22.360
appreciate food, right.
1128
01:06:23.559 --> 01:06:27.639
I'm sure he would. Now, how did you choose the artists,
1129
01:06:27.719 --> 01:06:30.480
Money and Daly. That must have been a tough one
1130
01:06:30.639 --> 01:06:34.239
choosing of all the artists who you know, you're familiar with.
1131
01:06:34.440 --> 01:06:38.800
Now, yeah, that's a I think I think Selvig or
1132
01:06:38.880 --> 01:06:44.199
Dally because he even though he's certainly not in my
1133
01:06:44.440 --> 01:06:48.639
circle of art like he's he's not considered. He's not
1134
01:06:48.719 --> 01:06:52.039
somebody that we talk about here at the Academy because
1135
01:06:52.199 --> 01:06:57.079
we talk about academic painters and draftsmen. So you would
1136
01:06:57.320 --> 01:07:02.760
you expect maybe me to choose Velasquez or Dura or
1137
01:07:02.920 --> 01:07:08.880
you know, as somebody and Jerome, But but no, I
1138
01:07:08.880 --> 01:07:13.079
think Dali as a as a personality and as for
1139
01:07:13.199 --> 01:07:19.800
unexpected conversations and a fresh perspective because you know, he
1140
01:07:19.880 --> 01:07:23.559
is a very inspiring kind of person and unexpected and
1141
01:07:23.599 --> 01:07:27.000
I think that's really refreshing to have that perspective at
1142
01:07:27.039 --> 01:07:31.440
dinner and Uh and Money because he I think he
1143
01:07:31.440 --> 01:07:34.599
he's very humble, like he did, he spent a lot,
1144
01:07:34.679 --> 01:07:37.880
a lot of his time as a as a painter
1145
01:07:38.679 --> 01:07:41.679
being really humbled by what he was trying to make
1146
01:07:41.760 --> 01:07:48.280
and having. And I think as well many artists deeply
1147
01:07:48.320 --> 01:07:53.880
connect and resonate with with what he said, especially.
1148
01:07:53.400 --> 01:07:54.199
Now with Instagram.
1149
01:07:54.280 --> 01:07:56.199
You know, you look at Instagram and you see everybody
1150
01:07:56.199 --> 01:07:58.559
else's highlight reeled and you see all the amazing art
1151
01:07:58.599 --> 01:08:01.880
that everybody's making, and go back and you struggle away
1152
01:08:01.920 --> 01:08:05.960
with your own painting and you don't maybe think what
1153
01:08:05.960 --> 01:08:09.000
you're making is any good, and it's really hard. And
1154
01:08:09.079 --> 01:08:12.320
Money said something, you know, in the nineteen hundreds, and
1155
01:08:12.360 --> 01:08:15.480
he was like, you know, everybody else is doing such
1156
01:08:15.519 --> 01:08:19.880
great work, and here I am struggling away making nothing
1157
01:08:20.039 --> 01:08:23.119
very good. He said something like that, and he was
1158
01:08:23.359 --> 01:08:27.039
just so it was such a wake up call. I
1159
01:08:27.039 --> 01:08:30.119
think to hear to read a quote from Money that
1160
01:08:30.319 --> 01:08:32.800
was that and then everybody, you know, he's such a
1161
01:08:32.840 --> 01:08:36.239
superstar now and I don't think he's overrated at all,
1162
01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:39.520
and he makes such beautiful work.
1163
01:08:39.560 --> 01:08:42.520
And from what especially me, I spend.
1164
01:08:42.279 --> 01:08:46.840
A lot more time now outdoors looking at light, trying
1165
01:08:46.880 --> 01:08:50.560
to record a light effect. I really appreciate what Money
1166
01:08:50.720 --> 01:08:52.199
was trying to do. And I would love to talk
1167
01:08:52.239 --> 01:08:52.920
to him at dinner.
1168
01:08:53.279 --> 01:08:56.279
So is this a formal dinner party or a kitchen supper?
1169
01:08:56.880 --> 01:08:59.800
Oh well, I mean in terms, it would have to
1170
01:08:59.800 --> 01:09:03.000
be an Italian style and we would have to we
1171
01:09:03.039 --> 01:09:06.239
start for it. Yeah, so it would, but we would
1172
01:09:06.239 --> 01:09:08.640
start a little bit in the kitchen because we would
1173
01:09:08.720 --> 01:09:11.600
still be you know, there would be many, many courses,
1174
01:09:11.720 --> 01:09:14.399
and we would start with little nibbles in the kitchen
1175
01:09:14.439 --> 01:09:18.119
and then move to outside in the garden, so we
1176
01:09:18.159 --> 01:09:22.399
would be we were having a dinner for just around
1177
01:09:22.439 --> 01:09:26.920
the Golden hour and outside in the garden, and that
1178
01:09:26.960 --> 01:09:28.479
would be that would be the ideal.
1179
01:09:28.680 --> 01:09:32.479
And multiple, you know, multiple courses.
1180
01:09:33.520 --> 01:09:36.199
Yes, how many is the most you've had? I think
1181
01:09:36.319 --> 01:09:39.319
I had thirteen once? Was it more than thirteen? In Italy?
1182
01:09:39.520 --> 01:09:42.119
I had thirteen. I think I think that was the
1183
01:09:42.159 --> 01:09:47.039
most I had. Yeah, it went on all after it
1184
01:09:47.079 --> 01:09:49.279
started just lunching and just dinner, but it was, you know,
1185
01:09:49.399 --> 01:09:50.479
thirteen courses.
1186
01:09:51.319 --> 01:09:53.399
That's impressive, I don't think.
1187
01:09:53.479 --> 01:09:57.239
I mean, I've had had many courses, multiple courses at
1188
01:09:57.279 --> 01:10:01.640
like a wedding before. But you usually it's my swatsheater,
1189
01:10:02.439 --> 01:10:07.520
my my mother in law's Sunday lunches are so fantastic
1190
01:10:07.560 --> 01:10:10.840
and abundant, and you know it starts off with like
1191
01:10:10.960 --> 01:10:14.199
nipples and wine in the kitchen while she's finishing preparing,
1192
01:10:14.239 --> 01:10:17.119
and then you have like at least a couple of
1193
01:10:17.199 --> 01:10:21.720
hours of lunch and only four I would say four courses,
1194
01:10:21.800 --> 01:10:25.720
but it's like really really paste out and everything is
1195
01:10:25.960 --> 01:10:30.039
there's like multiple things to choose from and every single
1196
01:10:30.119 --> 01:10:33.560
course and then it ends with you know, the grappa,
1197
01:10:33.920 --> 01:10:37.600
the end and the it's it's a really special space.
1198
01:10:37.680 --> 01:10:41.399
You just you feel you leave feeling like you will
1199
01:10:41.439 --> 01:10:42.840
never need to eat again.
1200
01:10:44.479 --> 01:10:47.560
I know that feeling. I'm wondering what you're going to
1201
01:10:47.600 --> 01:10:50.359
feed them though? If you you and Alexandra can cook
1202
01:10:50.399 --> 01:10:52.159
for them, are you going to do everything? Are you
1203
01:10:52.199 --> 01:10:53.479
going to prepare the whole Mealalan?
1204
01:10:53.680 --> 01:10:56.720
Yep ah, one hundred percent. I would probably put most
1205
01:10:56.760 --> 01:10:59.159
of it on my husband. I get to strength Alessandra
1206
01:10:59.600 --> 01:11:02.840
because I I get too stressed out trying to be
1207
01:11:02.960 --> 01:11:04.760
hostess and to cook at the same time.
1208
01:11:05.119 --> 01:11:07.239
So I think most things would need to be prepared
1209
01:11:07.279 --> 01:11:07.840
in advance.
1210
01:11:07.920 --> 01:11:14.399
But yeah, it would definitely involve some of our homemade pasta.
1211
01:11:14.439 --> 01:11:16.720
And then because we live out in the countryside.
1212
01:11:16.760 --> 01:11:20.479
We live just outside of Florence and we live we
1213
01:11:20.600 --> 01:11:23.000
have an olive grove and a hunter will come and
1214
01:11:23.039 --> 01:11:26.880
he will often shoot a wild boar. We often have
1215
01:11:27.720 --> 01:11:32.319
chingale the wild boar, and we make a really beautiful ragu,
1216
01:11:32.880 --> 01:11:38.920
so homemade with ragu with wild boar ragu would be
1217
01:11:39.640 --> 01:11:41.159
would be a choice?
1218
01:11:41.720 --> 01:11:44.239
Can I come after dinner and just eat what's left
1219
01:11:44.239 --> 01:11:46.199
over in the kitchen without anybody noticing?
1220
01:11:47.359 --> 01:11:51.600
Oh I should have? Well, why didn't I missed you on?
1221
01:11:51.680 --> 01:11:53.880
There been a great idea?
1222
01:11:53.960 --> 01:11:57.359
Wouldn't at the table? I'm quite happy coming into the
1223
01:11:57.479 --> 01:11:58.560
kitchen after.
1224
01:12:00.800 --> 01:12:06.680
Well, if I can have a seventh person, it's well,
1225
01:12:06.680 --> 01:12:08.880
that says a wonderful, wonderful dinner party.
1226
01:12:09.159 --> 01:12:12.920
Hannah. Tell us before you go, now what you're looking
1227
01:12:12.920 --> 01:12:15.840
forward to this year and where your work is being
1228
01:12:15.880 --> 01:12:18.560
exhibited if anybody wants to find it, not just on
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01:12:18.600 --> 01:12:20.159
your website, but if they are in Italy.
1230
01:12:21.039 --> 01:12:24.399
Ah, okay, so Wolf and now we're just finishing up
1231
01:12:24.439 --> 01:12:28.079
today an exhibition at the Florence Academy of Art. But
1232
01:12:28.520 --> 01:12:31.960
actually look out for I am releasing an online catalog
1233
01:12:32.119 --> 01:12:34.479
at the end of the month. So if you are
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01:12:34.600 --> 01:12:39.159
interested in seeing a collection of my work, then you
1235
01:12:39.199 --> 01:12:43.119
can find that on my website Hannah Sutton dot art
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01:12:43.680 --> 01:12:45.880
and that will be available.
1237
01:12:46.680 --> 01:12:48.840
How else can they find you? On social media? Just
1238
01:12:48.880 --> 01:12:49.760
remind everybody.
1239
01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:53.600
Yeah, so I'm most active on Instagram, so you can
1240
01:12:53.640 --> 01:12:58.119
find me at Hannah Sutton and I'm also on Facebook
1241
01:12:58.159 --> 01:13:00.359
at Hannah Sutton Art, and I.
1242
01:13:00.520 --> 01:13:02.960
Let you get back to your studio work, and I
1243
01:13:03.000 --> 01:13:07.840
know we're recording in your afternoon there in Florence. Yeah late,
1244
01:13:07.880 --> 01:13:11.199
I'd use your hours very as your husband used to,
1245
01:13:11.319 --> 01:13:13.520
your coming home at all hours.
1246
01:13:13.960 --> 01:13:16.640
I have to be home for dinner. That's important. The ritual,
1247
01:13:16.880 --> 01:13:22.000
the ritual of dinner time, that's very important. That and
1248
01:13:22.079 --> 01:13:25.520
I also also worked out fine because I worked completely
1249
01:13:25.600 --> 01:13:29.319
under natural light. So I'm like, all of the light
1250
01:13:29.399 --> 01:13:31.800
coming in here that you can see is all coming
1251
01:13:31.840 --> 01:13:33.840
in from a skylight. So as soon as the light
1252
01:13:33.880 --> 01:13:37.399
starts to go down, then I'm I'm pack up for
1253
01:13:37.479 --> 01:13:40.399
the day. So I just work under the sun.
1254
01:13:41.199 --> 01:13:41.680
I love that.
1255
01:13:42.560 --> 01:13:45.560
And thank you so much for sharing your story with
1256
01:13:45.720 --> 01:13:47.640
us here on the show. It's been a joy to
1257
01:13:47.680 --> 01:13:49.760
get to know you. And I can still see that
1258
01:13:49.800 --> 01:13:52.840
little girl at Drovers, you know, rounding up the sheep
1259
01:13:53.920 --> 01:13:57.800
all the way from Melbourne to Florence. You you obviously
1260
01:13:57.800 --> 01:14:02.239
made a wonderful career and extremely successful, so long may
1261
01:14:02.279 --> 01:14:05.039
it continue. Good luck with everything you're doing. And thank
1262
01:14:05.079 --> 01:14:06.880
you again for taking time to come on the show.
1263
01:14:07.680 --> 01:14:10.159
It has been delightful, Chris, thank you for having me.
1264
01:14:11.319 --> 01:14:13.640
Well that's it. For this week. Do join us again
1265
01:14:13.680 --> 01:14:15.640
in two weeks time. In the meanwhile, look for us
1266
01:14:15.680 --> 01:14:19.760
online at Hollowellstudios dot com and also where you find
1267
01:14:19.800 --> 01:14:22.159
all the podcasts, and you can also find us on
1268
01:14:22.199 --> 01:14:25.119
any podcast app and if you want to watch the
1269
01:14:25.119 --> 01:14:27.319
show of course, if you're listening on your podcast app,
1270
01:14:27.319 --> 01:14:31.159
don't forget to hop over to Women Uncensored on YouTube,
1271
01:14:31.199 --> 01:14:34.680
where all our shows are in one channel. Thank you
1272
01:14:34.720 --> 01:14:35.199
for listening.