“Anwen Keeling is notably the leading equestrian painter in Australia today. Her work is anatomically exact and her finished paintings reference the style and professionalism of the great era of equestrian portraits by the best of the 18th and 19th century painters, such as George Stubbs and Alfred Munnings.”
(Michael Reid 2012)
Category
Shadow of a Doubt
“With their distinctive play of liquid shadow and baroque touches of colour, Keeling’s ambiguous images channel crime fiction and film noir. Recalling Raymond Chandler’s stories of desire and intrigue, and Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema of sexual tension, the women and men face or evade each other according to various archetypal romantic scenarios.”
(Kate Sands, “Shadow of a Doubt”, Liverpool Street Gallery, 2009)
Category
The Falling Dark
Anwen Keeling’s world is a shadowy, elegant place. It’s a place alive with the haunting beauty of the sky after a flash of lightning; the emptiness between people when conversation clatters to the floor; the tension of a held breath behind a locked door.. Like film stills from a Hitchcock thriller, Anwen’s latest exhibition, ‘The Falling Dark’, captures elegant visions of isolated women poised on the edge of something more. In ‘Suspense’ a blonde woman climbs a dark staircase, her face hidden by shadows, her body heavy with anticipation. In ‘Drifting’ a woman is suspended in the bath, lost in thought as the delicate afternoon light washes over her. ‘The Falling Dark’ is truly gripping viewing.
(Jade Warne LOOK 2007)
Category
Languor
In her latest series of paintings Anwen Keeling has captured her subjects admist a sizzling summer heat. Her images range from intensley intimate moments within the bathroom, to group scenes at the iconic Bondi Beach sea baths. The works are sensuous and voyeuristic with lush surfaces and deep chiaroscuro tantalising the eye. Mood, atmosphere and the power of suggestion are paramount.
(Emma Epstein 2005)
Category
Waiting Room
“These luminous paintings of domestic interiors are so tantalisingly realistic you’ll feel compelled to apologise for the intrusion. The semi-clad inhabitants of Keeling’s latest series, Waiting Room, are caught in moments of contemplation. In Waiting Room #2 a woman sits hunched up in a bath, gazing at her fingertips. Keeling was a finalist in this year’s Doug Moran Portrait Prize, and this exhibition furthers her reputation as an exceptional painter.”
