A self-taught artist who has drawn on visits to both the north and south poles will bring his love of wildlife to an exhibition in Lorne this month.
Portland artist Brett Jarrett can lay claim to being Australia’s most widely travelled and experienced animal painter.
With a life dedicated to painting animals, and birds in particular, Jarrett has undertaken field trips to Antarctica, throughout Australasia, North and South America and twice to the geographic North Pole.
Throughout the year Jarrett produces no more than 20 paintings, from small life-size portraits to large complex pieces that can take months to complete.
Jarrett said he wanted to produce artwork to the highest standard to maintain both the quality and value of his paintings.
“A larger volume of work often means, fast, repetitive easily produced works that don’t progress one’s ideas, design or skill,” he said.
His wildlife painting career was inspired by the rugged cliffs and expansive beaches of the coastline surrounding his home town of Portland.
“Its rich diversity of both terrestrial and marine wildlife was the perfect environment growing up with a fascination of whales and oceanic seabirds,” Jarrett said.
“Realist painting takes on many interpretations and forms and there is no distinction between a human portrait and an animal or bird portrait.
“Both in their purest form are telling a story and an intimate view of the subject’s beauty, personality, character and expressions.”
During his travels Jarrett has worked as a field biologist collecting behavioural and abundance data on whales, dolphins and seabirds.
He has spent a total of three years living on the Antarctic continent, including four months tagging Weddell Seals.
In 2001 Jarrett co-authored and illustrated a collection of all the marine mammals of the world, depicting for the first time species and characteristics never before published.
His latest exhibition, In a Natural Light, will be in the Otway Room at Lorne’s Cumberland Lorne Resort from 26 to 27 March.
Jarrett said the paintings were a diverse collection, from local shorebirds such as the endangered hooded plover to the majestic wandering albatross, penguins, crested terns, fairy-wrens and the Arctic’s top predator, the polar bear.
During the exhibition Jarrett will be available to discuss his works and his fascination with wildlife.
