Chloe Wilder is yet another Margaret River blow in from a small and extraordinarily exotic country off the East coast of Australia. She came from a background of Environmental Science and found her work could be more than a hobby after intensive field work in Cetacean research the Kimberly involving a lot of time alone on a cliff talking to nobody but the whales…that obviously couldn’t hear her.
Her previous explorations began post study at RMIT in Melbourne, focused on the modern female portrait. They are large scale oil works that involve connecting with women, which are surreptitiously painted as a way to unravel the connection between the artist and the muse. The true artwork, is the conversation and connection that results.
Currently her work has circled back to her roots, towards humans and their connection with nature. The way the two interact and feed each other. An exploration of how violent, robust and enduring, yet delicate, nurturing and beautiful obverse forces of mother earth find their reflections in human beings and the primal urges, natural queues and instinctive responses that connect us all. During a hiatus from the world of painting while caring for her second child, she began looking back at her own lineage and has begun forging connections in small ways in pockets of time through traditional craft such as collecting of wild clay for pottery, hide tanning, basket weaving from home grown and foraged plants and carving with wood from trimmed trees to accompany the themes illustrated in her larger scale work. An orgy of discovery, response and the effect of place on not only creativity, but personal outlook.
She’s also just a bit silly and you should probably come chat to her. Seriously. She makes a helluva cuppa.