Ellen's baring all to teach art

Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong

Friday, until April 7

Reflecting on her past work has, at times, been an embarrassing task for Wollongong artist Ellen Jaye Benson.

In order to put together her current exhibition, which tracks her art practice over the past 15 years, she had to trawl through artwork she developed while still at university - much of which she now describes as "naive".

"To be honest, it was kind of embarrassing, some of it. As you evolve as an artist, you're obviously in a different head space, when you're starting out you find yourself doing the really cliche academic things until you find your own voice," she says.

"I think often with art shows people aren't willing to do a survey of practice because you do have to show those naive patches of work, it's not just about the polished pieces."

Still, revisiting her old art works has been an important learning process.

Benson says looking back has shown her how she has grown as an artist in terms of concept, execution and confidence in her finished pieces.

She is now a process-based artist, allowing the ideas to develop on the canvas instead of having a set idea of how a piece will turn out when beginning.

"I think over time, I've developed a real consistency but going back over my work, I thought about how when you're young you're quite receptive to influence and what's going on around you, and as you develop confidence, you find yourself finding patterns of information you keep returning to and stylistic devices that evolve."

A Survey of Art Practice is a large exhibition of mixed media pieces, many a cross between painting and drawing, of figurative studies, costume studies and landscapes.

The latter are the most recent step in Benson's repertoire, which she started developing in the last years of her decade living in Melbourne.

"While I was in Melbourne, I got a bit homesick and developed these three monumental landscapes, they're huge, giant works," she says.

Upon returning to the Illawarra she has returned to painting landscapes.

"A lot of artists who find themselves spending time here find themselves making landscape work, whether or not they're landscape artists," Benson says.

"You can't help but be affected by the vastness of the landscape around here. No matter what you do, it impacts on your lifestyle."

The decision to put together a retrospective-style show was triggered by Benson's move to a career as an art educator.

She felt she needed to reflect on how her practice had changed and grown in order to become a better teacher for her future students.

"It was like I had to think backwards to become an educator, to remember what those learning hurdles are," she says.