RISE artist profile: Lorna Quinn

Image: Lorna Quinn, The garden (2022), oil on board, 30.5cm x 25cm.

The work of Melbourne-based artist Lorna Quinn explores the sprawling mountain plateaus of Tasmania. 

Born in East Melbourne, Quinn shares her time between bustling inner-city Melbourne and the slower-paced, relaxed lifestyle that Tasmania has to offer. In early 2021 she travelled around Tasmania in a van with her partner and was inspired by the rugged high plains of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park.

Art practice first started for her as a child, often through drawing the environment around her, with Quinn noting that in the early days of her artistic exploration she was often inspired by early western landscape paintings, German expressionist cinema and painting, alongside British romantic artists such as Samuel Palmer and William Blake. 

Through the creation of small-scale oil paintings, Quinn said she is drawn to the drama of mountain and forest forms experienced while hiking in lutruwita/Tasmania.  

“Out in the varying and often harsh conditions, I feel the strong weight and density of the natural and social history of the land; through its crags, curves and peaks or its boughs and troughs. It is a potent and vibrating landscape which is a rich source to draw on,” Quinn said.  

“I’m interested in sharing encounters that are emotive, that perhaps sit outside of language, through my work. I am interested in the illusory nature of desire, and in the texture of the fantasies that we inhabit in pursuit of it.” 

Image: Lorna Quinn, Mudmen (2023), oil on board. Photo: courtesy of the artist. 

Quinn notes that she finds excitement in the mimicking potential of oil paint, alongside the textural integrations from brushes within her work. 

“It is satisfying to see the luminosity that can be achieved through thin layers of translucent paint, and the textures of brush marks embedded in the surface,” she said.  

“I spend so much time painting that I will run through the whole gamut of everyday emotions doing it. Boredom, neutrality, frustration, anxiety, fatigue and occasionally periods of exhilaration and excitement.  

“It must in some way satisfy a deep need, as I can spend hours and hours working without wanting to step away.” 

When asked what it means to her creative practice to be featured in the 2023 exhibition RISE, Quinn said the support of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is invaluable. 

“I am so pleased to have been included in the RISE exhibition at QVMAG, and to have been given the opportunity to contribute to the representation of art and culture in the City of Launceston,” she said.  

“As an emerging artist, the institutional support of QVMAG is invaluable to me at this early stage in my career.  

“I am very grateful that QVMAG has taken an interest in the work that I do, and I am especially excited to be exhibiting in the cavernous, late Victorian-era gallery space at Royal Park.”