Zara Stanley was born in London UK and immigrated with her family to South Australia in 1975. What struck her most on arriving in the country were the intense reds, yellows, blues and greens of the Australain Landscape. All colours in Australia are heightened and vast and the colourful influence and space of her everyday enviroment can be seen reflected in Zara's use of colour and free flowing lines depicting diverse images from her personal interests.
The family then moved to Melbourne where at Elwood Senior High School Zara was mentored for two years by artist Shirley Hough in Life Drawing, Zara then went to the Victoria Art College majoring in Printmaking and then futhered her education with a BA in Fine Arts at Melbourne University.
Zara has worked in Galleries, participated in Community Festivals and has had several Solo and Group shows in Melbourne and Adelaide (cv provided on request) and is in two private collections of past sponsers in Melbourne.
What is unique about Zara's work is her use of the medium Black Enamel Housepaint. Zara has developed a technique that involves dripping the housepaint from a small jug or off a dipped stick straight onto the prepared canvas. Sometimes there is a rough outline to follow over (as with the detailing of some of the Geishas) or the paint is applied with no guide just instinct. Zara's handing over to instinct is part of the process of the enamelling because as it dries the enamel spreads in whatever direction it wants, and dries either smooth or textured as the enviromet dictates. The enamel has an umpredictabilty that Zara likes to work with, as it creates shadows, depth and reflections where there were none before, the painting becomes a collaborative experience between artist and medium.
After the black enamel has dried, Zara 'sees' the colours that are meant to be in the spaces left and fills them with the intense colours from Australia that at once harmonize and create beautiful tension.
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