Paula McLoughlin
Clouds have long held special place in our collective imagination. As children, lying on our backs, gazing up at the sky, playing games of discovery—finding the familiar and creating narratives, blissfully unaware that clouds serve as both subjects of beauty and destruction, symbols of impermanence and change. They can be threatening and divine.
This made me think about the many ways in which we as humans settle – we settle on ideas, we settle for things in life, we settle in conversations, settle in for the long haul and we strive to settle in a physical space – the list goes on. We equate settling with success because it underpins a resolution, and our desire for a final state.
We are told in so many ways that settling can be contentment. But in reality do we settle or is this really a continual contemplation and desire, hence the circles."
Paula McLoughlin
Click here for artwork by Paula McLoughlin
Exhibitions at Tacit Art include
Through the exploration of artists who have also looked to the sky such as John Constable, with his meticulous studies and his dedication to capturing its depth and dynamism of the British sky through to Berndnaut Smilde’s ethereal indoor clouds challenging our perception of the permanence of form by capturing a momentary existence that fades almost as soon as it appears, each with their own interpretations to clouds, capturing their ephemeral beauty and inviting us to see beyond their surface
2023 The conversation is broken
The circle has long been a motif used by the artist as a metaphor for an ongoing conversation. Along with the target motif it has been used by the artist to convey never ending interactions, the meandering of thoughts the dreaminess of road trips and the desire to settle into contentment.
In this series, the artist is using these motifs as an exploration of the dysfunction of communication, exploring the breakdown of dialogue and the consequences that follow.
Each print in the series is a one-off piece, starting its life as a misprint from a previous edition. With what would normally become proofing paper as the image was broken, it has now become something new, a difficult image to resolve, a reminder that perfection is not a human state that should be aimed for. A thread of a conversation that had been broken that has now been picked up and concluded.
Having an unresolved screen-print as a starting point, the artist has created a dynamic interplay between the intentional and the accidental, the pristine and the broken. Many of the pieces feature drawn elements, glitter, subtle colour shifts with iridescence, while others are shockingly contrasted, as a visual ‘violence’. In this way, the prints themselves reflect the subtle and not so subtle breaks in communication and the conversations that are currently being had on the large stages as well as the small and intimate stages. Hopefully the resolution of the ‘broken’ prints shows potential for broken conversations to be renewed and transformed.
2022 The wide open spaces are a dream
"I would be lying if said the last couple of years did not make me feel a little closed in. Separated from my studio, I thought that my practice would morph into something else in that time because my practice had always been an essential part of me. But I found it extraordinarily difficult to just make. The pandemic years were not a period of productivity for me in my practice. For some it was but for others that is not how it worked as I found myself in different territory.
I am lucky though, and I know that I am lucky. Living in the inner west of a city, I took all the opportunities I could to get out of the confines of my house, but my allowed radius left me without a panorama, I had no clear views, no clear line of sight. There was no space. There are buildings, construction and concrete everywhere. It is interestingly industrial and that became a bit of a trap for me, even though I know I am lucky.
So, in what was possibly a counter intuitive move and being the introvert printmaker that I am, unable to escape to the world of making, I focussed in and dreamt of clear horizons and big skies. I started to delve into my historical travel, dreaming of open spaces, meditating on their grandeur and even though there had been years of isolation there was calmness in the emptiness of the landscapes I was revisiting.
The wide open spaces are a dream is an exhibition of landscapes and memories, of places once visited and captured with hopeful expectation. Landscapes captured so that there is a pathway back to the sensation of being there. I would use these Images like a scent or a piece of music to guide me back to the sensation of being in the open unencumbered, to feel the freedom and sense of place.
These screenprints exploit the process of colour separation with the intention of creating differing layers and textures to bring depth and clarity. The hope is to give the viewer different planes of focus, the opportunity to stare into the distance or look through the textures through to in intermediate focal point. The purpose is always to be a bit dreamy and meditative.
2017 Conversational
'I have been ‘playing’ with the circular and target motifs for some time – It is an avenue of my practice that gives me a bit of space and solace. It started as a tribute to the idea of calm repetitiveness and seductions of surfaces and colour. A salute to a hero of mine – Jasper Johns – I sheepishly dared to put forward a small tribute to the idea that sometimes there is a point where the subject and the ideas of the artwork are not as important as the fact that the work exists.
Over the years the reasons for the making the prints have moved, they had become illustrations of exchanges, imagined conversations between Josef Albers and Jasper Johns. I have no evidence that the two ever conversed but Josef did teach Robert Rauschenberg, and Rauschenberg had an intimate relationship with Johns. So is it not so hard to believe that there may have been, somewhere between studio and pillow talk a conversation between Robert and Jasper that Josef came into. The two young artists laughing at Josef and his Bauhaus moves, as they took over the world with their Neo Dada ways.
I imagined that Joseph and Jasper would be a push me pull me type conversations Josef with his artwork as lessons [Homage to a Square] and Jasper with his contradictions and no meanings [hmm the target and flags] Josef was strict in his approach, planned and purposeful, it was about the relationship of colour. The square was the vehicle to show us the function and perception of colour illustrating the optical and psychological effects that colour alone.produces. The square held no symbolic meaning, these were glorious lessons of colour and spatial relationships, painted in a very particular manner, colours touched they never overlapped. Jasper is full of symbols but seemingly little meaning – the art was for itself, the critical discourse attached itself in hindsight in part driven by the symbols used. Did it matter that it was a flag or a target, the art simply existed - you finish it off.
In the past I considered I simply observing these exchanges but of course imagined conversations have the potential to constantly change so with this set of prints I think Joseph is receding from the conversation. There is no real push me pull me with these prints I think these prints are more sombre and reflective they aim to just exist.'
Paula McLoughlin, November 2017
Exhibitions
solo
2024 Clouds can be deceptive - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2023 The conversation is broken - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2022 The wide open spaces are a dream - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2021 Small Things - Alternating Current Artspace, Melbourne
2020 Give me shelter - fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne
2019 Settling - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2018 Hey Josef - Why So Square, Alternating Current Artspace, Melbourne
2017 Conversational - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2016 Being Human - Beth Hulme Gallery, Melbourne
2015 A Conversation Between Josef & Jasper - Beth Hulme Gallery, Melbourne
2014 A Convergence of North and South - Beth Hulme Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Little Tragedies - Truth & Lies, Beth Hulme Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Watching a Space - Chrysalis Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Corners & Alleyways - Red Gallery, Melbourne
group
2025 Summer Salon - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2024 SALON Works on Paper - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2022 TACIT Still Life Prize - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Garden of Loss and Triumph - No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
Editions Print Prize - Tacit Art, Melbourne [JOINT WINNER]
Superimposed - No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
2021 Burnie Print Prize - Tasmania
Caravan - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2020 Goodbye 1.5 Metres - Black Cat Gallery, Melbourne
20[2020] - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Pause Button - Old Auction House, Kyneton
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2019 Art Aviso No.1 - No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Vitroform - Lord Coconut, Melbourne
Glow - Neon Parlour, Melbourne
Experimental Print Prize - Castlemaine Regional Gallery
Square Circle - Black Cat Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Sphere - Off the Kerb Gallery, Melbourne
Impressions - Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
2017 Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Burnie Print Prize - Tasmania
2016 Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Chroma - Beth Hulme Gallery, Melbourne
Chroma - Queenscliff Gallery & Workshop
Compact Print 2016 - Umbrella Studio, Townsville
Impressions - Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
2014 Swan Hill Print & Drawing Award - Swan Hill Regional Gallery
St Kilda Revisited - St Kilda Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne
2013 Fremantle Print Award
2012 The 75 Print Salute - 69 Smith St Gallery, Melbourne
Postcard Show - New Linden Art, Melbourne
2011 NBC Meshtec Screen Print Biennial - Tokyo, Japan
2010 Solander - London Print Workshop
Impressions - Australian Print Workshop
2008 Fremantle Print Award