Philomena Carroll

Growing up in the Catholic Church indelibly shaped my aesthetic sensibilities. Religious imagery, paintings, statuary, frescoes and stained-glass windows depicting a range of sublime to terrifying scenes of the Madonna and child through to violent floggings, crucifixions and devils…the stuff of nightmares for a sensitive child.

My experience painting the local landscape here on Dja Dja Wurrung land, has developed a phenomenological aspect of viewing the land, particularly the creeks and feeling or imagining its dark history. What events have taken place on the spot where I stand by the creek? Was it a place where young lovers went to court or illicit dealings or violence took place? I am drawn to the physical beauty of this land around me and it is a place for contemplation through my explorations in paint.

As a musician I have learnt many murder ballads from the Appalachian Mountains where the victims are often “done in” on the banks of a river or creek. These have inspired the titles of some of my paintings, ‘Banks of the Ohio’ and ‘Greenwood Siding’.

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