Artist profile
Jasmine
Mansbridge
Jasmine is a professional practicing artist whose work is best described as the meeting of exploration and refinement. Jasmine has taken her art to a number of mediums – sculpture, large-scale public works and intimate paintings for private collection, and more recently film and animation. She is not afraid to venture outside an established comfort zone. Whatever her choice of art form, Mansbridge brings a refined and meticulous hand to the work; her deliberation and contemplation are evident at all times. The work provokes thought and wonder and gives the viewer the chance to apply their personal storytelling, as they unpack the geometry and portals of Mansbridge’s imagined world.
Career Highlights
1. 2 finalist entries in the Hawkesbury art prize 2021.
2. Finalist in the Blacktown art prize.
3. Published in Grand designs magazine and appeared in home design magazine.
Artist Interview
What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?
I work across several genres including sculpture, installation and film, for my painting however, I have largely always worked using acrylic mediums and linen. The quick drying of the acrylic and the control over the surface has always appealed to me. The ability to store and stop and start with acrylic and the way I block and build colour is very compatible with my process. It is in simpatico with my family and travel life. I love the way my work is so flat and precise it could be mistaken for digital or computer generated work, however it is all entirely and meticulously hand drawn and painted.
How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?
I am forever drawing and then when it comes to creating painted or exhibition work I rely on all of this free flow output to come through in larger scale paintings. I often begin with an idea in mind and then create something entirely different. It is the intention and the heart felt message that always wins. Essentially I want people to feel lifted and elevated by my offerings, to have something that lasts lifetimes and captures an essence of something meaningful and important.
Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?
I am currently based in regional Victoria, approximately three and a half hours out of Melbourne, my studio practice there is intertwined with the regular climbing of nearby Mountains and the domestic concerns associated with the raising of my children. I do however, like to travel as much as I can and paint in new locations. I have also had studios in other places at various points in time. I feel this helps to keep the work fresh and with an immediacy only new surroundings can bring.
Most recently I spent time at a residency in rural France, there I began a series of paintings before then bringing them home to my Australia to complete. My process of underpainting the outlines of the work with gesso, preserving the original drawing prior to adding colour works well for me to be able to paint outside of the studio environment.
I spent a large majority of my life until I was 26 living in Katherine in the remote Northern Territory. I was influenced by the way the indigenous artists around me approached making art. This was to make rather intuitively and instinctively and in and amongst family and day to day life, without the specific need for solitude or a separate artistic identity. So, much of my creative output unfolds like this, as an expression and a reflection of what I am myself experiencing and what feels relevant to the world around me. I am forever trying to make sense of the human experience and use narrative and metaphor and a means for my own story telling and that of the larger collective.
I have been painting since I was 17 and it has become a language all of it’s own, one I hope will connect people to their own emotions and experiences, the ones where words don’t suffice and simply experiencing art will connect people to all they feel, on not just a conscious but a subconscious level.
