An exhibition of emotive monochrome landscape works by emerging central Victorian artist Kristy Lynch was unveiled at Castlemaine’s Lot19 Arts Precinct on Saturday.
The 37-year-old up-and-coming artist from Bendigo lost her sight in 2018, and as a result, lost her sense of self and purpose in the world. She began painting as therapy in 2019 after entering drug rehabilitation, discovering a hidden talent when painting for her father.
“I had no money and so I decided to do a painting for my dad for Father’s Day. The team at the rehabilitation facility were blown away. They felt I had real talent,” Kristy said.
“It was as though my sight was taken away but the universe gave me a gift.”
Kristy uses a monochrome palette as it allows her to see the contrast more easily as she paints.
“I don’t have a studio. I just sit on a towel on the floor in my loungeroom and the image comes to me and out onto the canvas.
I’ve likened it to those water pictures we used to do as children where the image was slowly revealed. I start with an idea and it just flows from there, it’s innate,” the artist said.
Kristy focuses on landscape pieces as she has always felt a strong connection with nature and in particular trees.
“They have a tangible energy, a beauty. They are a metaphor for life,” she said.
Kristy said her paintings changed as she progressed through three stints of rehabilitation.
“Each painting brings up emotions and memories from that time,” she said.
“As you can see one of my first paintings is dark and chaotic. In the beginning I was in a huge amount of pain and struggling with withdrawal, but by the final one the light is shining through.
“For the first time I had clarity and I could really see.”
Kristy’s first exhibition is also aptly titled Light Through the Darkness.
The audience can take the opportunity to experience the works through Kristy’s eyes by using vision restricting glasses, which are available at the gallery.
“They are not an exact replica of my vision loss but they give viewers the chance to experience the artwork from my perspective,” Kristy said.
Last Thursday marked two years since Kristy last entered rehab and began her journey to wellness.
“I’m two years clean today. I’d like to acknowledge those people who championed and encouraged me until I learnt to believe in myself,” she said.
“It’s a continual process, you grieve the time you lost, but you focus on the present and the future and a new way of being and the possibilities. It’s really a test of perseverance and finding balance every day.”
The artist said she was working as a diversional therapist coordinating lifestyle activities at an aged care facility before her journey through rehabilitation and now she plans to study community services, with a focus on alcohol and other drugs and the mental health sector, and use her life experience to help others in a similar place.
“One of my favourite quotes is ‘Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but actually you’ve been planted…bloom’ by Christine Caine,” Kristy said.
“I’ve been in that dark place and I know what it’s like. You feel all alone, vulnerable. I’d like to be able to reach out to others in that dark place, crawl into that hole with them and help lead them out into the light.”
People can catch Light Through the Darkness at Lot19 Arts in Langslow Street, Castlemaine, every weekend from 11-4 until the end of July.
