Marion Chapman

I have always drawn, ever since I can remember, covering my schoolbooks in doodles and drawings. Fast forward to adulthood and a career in medical science, working in Pathology in London. I began attending Life Drawing classes at Sir John Cass School of Art, which then increased to include painting and silkscreen printing classes. I made a big decision. I decided to work part time and attend art school full time. After showing my folio I was accepted into the City & Guilds of London School of Art, where I studied painting and printmaking for 4 years. We were the only art school at the time that practiced life drawing, all the other London Schools, including Chelsea, Royal College and Slade were into abstract and conceptual art, and so I had a thorough grounding in painting construction and drawing. As part of our studies, we copied paintings of the Masters from the National gallery in London, so I learnt a lot about the use of colour from this exercise.

I have exhibited both in England and Australia, with my work acquired both here and overseas. I love painting landscapes and gardens, as well as still life and life around me. In England I was drawn to the tonality of landscape, but in Australia it is the light and colour that I love.  

Since being back in Australia and raising children, I have become an active member of Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and Victorian Artist Society. I was a National Gallery of Victoria guide for 10 years, but then making the decision to spend my time making art, rather than talking about it!

I love the immediacy of working in gouache, as well as in oils, but in recent years have moved away from oils for health reasons and taken up water-based acrylics instead.