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Monique Lovering

Sydney-based artist Monique Lovering, has a sophisticated visual-spatial intelligence. In her work, the negative space is as formidable as the positive and it is this quality that results in creations that vibrate with a visceral complexity. Lovering’s command of colour is exceptional and she displays both expert restraint and emancipation in its application. It can be sheer and diaphanous or hefty and textural. She utilises a palette that is predominantly muted and monochromatic, favouring at turns every shade of white, charcoals and sometimes the palest of pinks and lemons like an array of oldfashioned blancmange. Conversely, she employs soliloquys of jewel-tones that sing even the louder because of their paucity. Another aspect of her aesthetic expression is the use of collage and mixed media. She also has a unique, freestyle method of drawing and has this to say about the latter: “I often shut my eyes and draw, relinquishing all control”. This experimental technique is an attempt on Lovering’s part to manifest a free-flowing conduit between the conscious and the unconscious mind and has since become her signature drawing style. Lovering’s distinctive technique of layering paint, charcoal and mixed media may well be a visual representation of the many stratums of personality that we all possess, commencing with the so-called public face and voyaging back through the mille-feuille of the character to the sacred, sequestered soul that resides at the centre of all of us. She has a unique artistic process that does away with conventional preface and instead relies on her current state of mind to reflect the natural honesty and inner workings of the unconscious psyche. Her ongoing curiosity with the relationship between creative expression and the human psyche prompted Lovering to commence studying Art Therapy in order to further explore the two. Lovering visualises a future where her role as an Art Therapist dovetails effortlessly with her art practice and enhances her own evolution as a fine artist. In the end, Lovering’s success as an artist lies in her capacity to wholly engage the viewer in the mystery and sensuality of the abstracted dreamscape of the unconscious. She does so in a guise that is thought provoking, awe-inspiring and ultimately, profoundly moving for the yearning human spirit.