November 27th, 2022Keele’s work in exhibition at Radius Gallery

Artist Keele Breen is holding an exhibition at Radius Gallery in Hepburn Springs from this
Saturday, November 26. It somehow involves a marriage proposal from over 50 years ago. Keele, who was The Local’s first artist feature in 2013, told her story to Donna Kelly.
“I GREW up in Glen Iris and went to the local
primary school, followed by Korowa – an
all-girls private school where I was a bit of a
square peg.
I went to Box Hill Tafe in 1987 where I studied
painting, drawing, printmaking and playing pool.
I’ve always loved to draw, and would write and
illustrate ‘novels’ starting around age 4.
When asked as a child what I’d like to be when I
grew up, I said either an artist or a builder. Dad was
forever working on building projects, and Mum was/is
an artist, so perhaps those influences are why I ended up
painting houses as well as pictures.
My paintings are largely abstract, though sometimes
there might be glimpses of figurative or other
representational elements. People often point out the
“things” they see in my paintings, some of which can be
quite surprising.
I have done a lot of life drawing over the years. Even though my paintings are
abstract, with leanings toward landscape, they often start out in the basis of figuration
or even portraiture. It sometimes seems like one painting contains several others
within its layers – a secret life.
The body of work on display at Radius has been developing over two to three
years. Through the time of Covid, and some difficult family losses, it’s been good to
get into the studio, crank up the music and just go for it.
My process usually starts out with blocking in an under-painting using acrylics.
Then I can continue using oil paints and pastels, which allows a more nuanced palette
and composition.
Each painting is different, and ‘speaks’ to me as to what approaches might be
needed as the process develops.
I rarely, if ever, consider my paintings to be ‘finished’. Any one of my paintings is
fair game for a rework as long as I can get my hands on it.
I find exhibiting my work quite nerve-racking – not so much because of other
people’s judgment, but because of my own. I’m so glad to be working with Morgan
and Kim at Radius – they have been longstanding friends and supporters. In fact I
went to kindergarten with Morgan nearly 50 years ago. We hatched a plan at the age
of five to get married…and although an argument over furniture placement put an
end to that, we’ve had a wonderful friendship all these years.”
The exhibition opening is at Radius Gallery on Saturday, November 26 from
3pm-5pm and it runs until December 17.
Opening hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 4pm.