In this episode, I'm joined by West Australian painter Wendy Marinich. We discuss what it actually looks like to build a body of work when you're in the middle of figuring it all out. Wendy came to painting a few years ago, after careers in floristry, catering, and working as a pasta maker at a well-known Perth restaurant. In that relatively short time, she's developing a practice that has a cohesive feel to it, full of mid-century warmth, bold colour, and a real sense of considered intent. I've been watching her work evolve for a while now, and I wanted to bring her on to talk about the process behind that, not from a place of looking back, but from right inside it.
We talk about where ideas begin for Wendy; that moment of instant clarity she had when she walked into her sister-in-law's house and saw a collection of vintage glass arranged by colour, and knew that was her next exhibition. We get into what happens when you have a clear concept but your instincts start pulling you somewhere else mid-series, and how she uses her body of work as a deliberate skills-building exercise. We also talk about the role of commissions, painting one-offs versus series, working on multiple pieces simultaneously, and why this year, for the first time, she decided not to book her exhibition before finishing the work.
Find Wendy Marinich here on Instagram and her website
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