Alice Weinthal - 'My friend can paint' Feature Artist.

Welcome to the very first post for this brand new blog series 'My friend can paint - Feature Artist'. 

For a long time now I've wanted to take advantage of my unique business title by also sharing the talents of... you guessed it - my friends! Now that my little page has officially turned 4 I thought that now is as good a time as any to start sharing some love.

So I'm really excited to be introducing this incredible lady and her work to you all. Alice is a mixed bag of tricks and she frequently amazes me. I love her to bits and I'm sure you will appreciate her skills. Watching her work live is an absolute treat, as anyone who has seen her in action could attest to. 

Once she gets going with her mark making, whether it be pencil to paper or spray can to a wall - her work simply flows with a greatness of ease. A dedicated Artist with a strong work ethic.

 I'm ever so grateful to her for agreeing to be the first Feature Artist for my blog, I hope you all find inspiration from her words and pictures too.

Over to you Alice! x

My name is Alice Weinthal and I am a figurative artist based in Toowoomba Queensland. For as long as I can remember I have been a drawer, and always of people and animals. As a child growing up in rural NSW I created complex characters who lived within a paracosm, manifested as drawings and small houses I made of rocks and timber on our property. This was an extensive world of young female characters and their families which was my centre of play for all of my childhood. Still today I like to visit where I built some of the houses when I visit my parents at home. 

My work is centred around self portraits. I would regularly draw self portraits during high school, perhaps as a self investigation and questioning during teenage years. It has always been a compulsive act for me to do so, like looking in a mirror that I can interact more deeply with. It is of no interest to me to achieve an exact physical replication of myself and it is very rare that I would title a work as a self portrait. 

During university I became interested in existentialist Jaques Lacan and his theory of “The Other” and this was the title of my last solo exhibition at 'No Comply Gallery' in Toowoomba.

Click the image to find out more about 'No Comply'.

I had my first solo show at the end of my third year at University at an artist run space called TRACER Projects. I loved exhibiting my work, watching people interact with and respond to the pieces was terrifying yet satisfying. This was of course in the days before social media promotion, so while one work was sold to an artist from Sydney, much of the work stayed with me and was only seen by the people who attended that night. Today it is much easier to promote my work and exhibitions, and galleries reach a much bigger audience through the internet. I am so grateful to be supported by No Comply Gallery in Toowoomba who have a huge database following the success of the First Coat Street Art festival in Toowoomba last year.  

'No Comply Gallery' use this unique space outside of the popular Toowoomba cafe 'Ground Up Espresso' to promote upcoming shows.

My solo show “The Others” at No Comply Gallery is definitely a highlight for me. I feel it was the most solid body of work I have done so far and unexpected sales were actually very encouraging. Prior to that, my residency at TheGRID Hybrid Arts collective in Toowoomba allowed me to prepare two bodies of work for two exhibitions early last year, one being “Hall Pass” at TheGRID and the other “Linear” at Jugglers Art Space in Fortitude Valley. And of course being an artist for the inaugural First Coat Street Art festival, being given the opportunity to have my name on the same card as giants like Fintan Magee, Sofles, and Shida. 

Alice at work during 'First Coat' in Toowoomba 2014. Picture courtesy of ABC Southern Queensland

To keep up with me check out my Facebook artist page https://www.facebook.com/AliceConstanceWeinthal and my website www.aliceconstanceweinthal.com 

Feel free to email me at alicecweinthal@gmail.com with any enquiries.

Thank you Alice for sharing great insight into your work.  

If you would like to find out more about Alice be sure to follow the links above or leave us a message of encouragement below.

As always thanks so much for reading.
Tamara x