Artist in Focus – Fiona Taylor

Fiona Taylor is an artist with Nimbus Studio in Bundoora.

What kind of art do you make?

I make work about endangered species. I have made works about birds, koalas, leopards, tigers, rhinos, and crocodiles. I’ve made work about Steve Irwin and extended family. I’m interested in the Irwin family and how the children are now chasing the dreams of their father. I’ve also made work about Crocodile Dundee. And David Attenborough because they do work to promote wildlife preservation. I’m looking forward to seeing David Attenborough’s new film on the ocean. He’s 99 now, he blows my mind, he’s an incredible man.

I’m thinking about the environment. We’re using a lot of materials. I’m thinking about recycling. We’re wasting a lot of rubbish. I think of birds too. What they eat, what animals put in their bellies. Bottles, plastics, things happening in the rivers, people. We’re killing the environment. It’s horrible. I hear things on TV, its terrible. It worries me, for my nieces and nephews. What’s the world going to look like for them?

I research images and lists on the internet. I work with painting, ceramics, and printmaking. I mainly work with gouache. It’s a great medium to work with, I have a lot of palette. You can reactivate the colours and then each palette tells a story about the animals, about their environments. I’ve also been doing some drawings that are based on my own memory and understanding of animal forms. I want to work with screen printing with these.

What kind of art have you made in the past?

I have done so much!

I used to make paintings of buildings around Melbourne, and around the world.

I looked in books at what I was interested in and later on I started to browse on the Internet.

Its a big shift. A lot of things have changed over the years [with] what’s going on in Melbourne and around the world.

I’ve made digital works, working on the computer, using Photoshop. that was all fun.

I have had some exhibitions and sold some work over the years.

I’ve also worked with puppet making. I miss that, I’d like to do that again!

What art are you working on right now?

I’ve just done a goauche painting of the critically endangered Sunda Island Tiger. There are only 600 left in the world. It’s so sad what’s happening [to them].

What are you looking forward to?

At some point I will have another solo exhibition, but right now I’m focussing on getting a body of work together. It’s good for people to see your work and get it out there! It’s good to show people what you can achieve through art.

Find out more about Nimbus Studio here. Follow Fiona on Instagram.