Artist Statement
Virginia Lydiard (Ginia) explores the mystery of the line in both her painting and drawing in digital media. In January 2021, during the Margaret Olley drawing week, she traced the top of a painting desk. From those tracings she extracted lines which she either traced or projected on to canvases and paper and from this initial playful impulse, gradually a body of work has evolved. Using both oils and acrylics, she has created art works which can be likened to contemporary art, modern art and pop art and it is the expression of the line which is the central feature of all her paintings.
BioBorn in central Queensland and being brought up on the land has had a deep influence on Virginia’s work as a painter in that she seeks to loose herself in wide open spaces where freedom reigns. Before studying painting at the National Art School, Virginia was a student nurse, a teacher, a mother, a politician’s wife and for many years, a lawyer and she draws on all these experiences to create her art pieces which are largely created from lines extracted from the top of a painting table in the National Art School. Each line sings its own song and is an expression of the history of the table, of the lives of the people who sat at that table and of the rich tapestry of her own life. The lines dictate the development of the artworks which in turn acknowledge the mystery of human life and man’s ever present desire for freedom.