The Fisherman's Prize Painting

Saren has been painting professionally for over 25 years. Originally form Zambia, Africa she has lived in several places both in Australia and overseas and has recently settled in Tewantin, Qld. She works predominantly in oils, but has also used photography, sculpture and drawing in her art practice. She has a broad range of interests, having studied Artists from the Renaissance, Modernism and Abstract Expressionism combined with studying literature, ecology and transformational neuroplasticity which have provided her work with multiple layers and meanings. Saren translates her current concerns and personal experiences to provoke social commentary and explore issues that challenge our definitions of what our society values. Painting for her is an immediate and potent form of communicating and unveiling the disparity of what we inhabit internally or subconsciously and how we act or project ourselves to the outside world. Although Saren searches for balance, she hints at the ongoing flux that is at the core of our existence. The work explores transience and transformation, with the riddle of identity at its core. Animals and birds appear in several works as a means of exploring our innate selves, the more subliminal, natural aspect of ourselves that we encounter on deeper reflection. They are symbolic of the freedom of our spirit in contrast to the restraints of our physical self and the mental conditions we place upon ourselves. Her style is bold, the lines directional and lyrical. Her childhood in Africa have informed her use of bold colours, strong dramatic forms and an abstracted representation of the figure to express the “story”. Her works are a ‘conversation’ caught in a moment, expressing how our experience of life in the moment is an abstract. Saren has participated in over 30 exhibitions. Her work has been collected by both private and public collectors in USA, UK, New Zealand, Brisbane and Melbourne. Her work is in the private collections of the University of Queensland, The South Australian Museum and Geelong Grammar School