23 November 2024 – 2 March 2025
Carmel Robertson is an emerging figurative painter based in the Goulburn Valley. Since her retirement as an arts educator, Robertson has dedicated herself fully to her art, developing a distinctive style that reflects both her personal experience and unique artistic voice.
In Wish you were here Robertson presents a series of oil paintings that depict familiar locations in Shepparton, with subtle manipulations. Colours are intensified, shadows elongated, and perspectives are distorted, creating a surreal effect. Robertson aims to capture the heightened sense of awareness that comes with being alone at night; when familiar surroundings become alien, taking on a dreamlike tinge that is at the same time beautiful and menacing.
Robertson’s paintings offer a commentary on Shepparton as a transitory space rather than a tourist destination. The town’s transient nature is emphasised and transformed into a liminal space through the depiction of empty streets, vacant lots at night, alleys and concealed pathways and familiar buildings at dawn or dusk, dissolving the boundary between the real and the unreal.
Featured image: Carmel Robertson, Two Hotels on High Street, 2024. © Carmel Robertson
About the artist
Carmel Robertson (b. 1955 Wangaratta, VIC) has resided in Shepparton, Victoria for the past 35 years. In that time, she had a 22-year career in education, teaching art and photography at Notre Dame College. After completing studies at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney in 2016-17, Robertson started painting full time. She has exhibited in group shows locally, including past SAM Community Gallery exhibitions, and presented a solo exhibition at the Euroa Butter Factory in 2022.
Curator: Caroline Esbenshade
Location: Hugh D.T Williamson Community Gallery, Level 2
Free