Denise Gillies

Denise Gillies

Denise Gillies is an artist and gallery owner living and working in the Ferguson Valley, near Collie, Western Australia.

Printmaking has become her primary passion in recent years. Collographs and monoprints feature strongly her work. However, mixed media work and encaustic art are becoming increasingly important in her art practice.

“The thing that all of my work has in common is the possibility of the unexpected,” says Denise. “This aspect of the techniques I use is so liberating!”

Many of her works explore two themes. One theme relates to the passing of time, often in the context of the environment. Symbols that she uses often are a hollow sun or moon that might also be a clock without hands.

Denise recalls a line from Robert Frost’s poems, ‘I Have been Acquainted with the Night’ in which he says, ‘one luminary clock against the sky proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.’ Overlapping this is the theme of the environment itself and our human impact upon it. This can be suggested directly by the subject matter or by chaotic images or even by colour.

Denise is also a member of The SouthWest Printmakers, which exhibits annually at the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries (BRAG) as well as other galleries including Art Space in Nedlands. Denise is also a regular exhibitor at BRAG’s annual Southwest Survey as well as at various exhibitions between Cossack in the northwest and Northcliffe in the south.

Denise’s works are in private homes throughout Australia as well as in interstate gallery collections such as Umbrella Studios in Queensland and Megalo Studios in the ACT. She can also proudly say that she has a print in the Animalia 2013 exhibition that has been archived in the National Gallery of Australia Archive in Canberra.

Denise divides her creative time between her own art and being owner and manager of Lyndendale Gallery, which showcases the work of around fifty artists artisans from the South West of Western Australia. The gallery hosts a variety of workshops as well as offering a selection of arts, crafts and old and antique items.

In addition to the extensive collection in Lyndendale Gallery, Denise’s works can be seen in Depikshuns in Bunbury, at Fifth Element Glass Studio, at St Aidan Winery and at Peppermint Lane Lodge.