MSWPS Featured Artist - Jo Reitze

The featured artist section of the website regularly highlights a Full Member Artist. The artist will have won an award at the latest Changing Perspectives exhibition or the MSWPS Award, chosen by the artist’s peer members.

Currently featured is Jo Reitze - Wetlands. Jo was the winner of the Jo Bennett Award for Work on Paper at the 2024 Annual Exhibition.

Artist Statement:

Using permanent markers and fine liners, my dramatic black and white drawing records the patterns and textures of the Barwon Estuary mudflats, part of the Ramsar Wetlands on Wadawurrung Country, Ocean Grove. Wetlands provide habitat and are vital for our planet’s health. The foreground depicts a tangle of gnarled branches, wetland vegetation and eroded surfaces, set against distance bushes and trees. My pen drawing captures the essence of this environmentally significant scene with scribbly, lyrical mark-making, inspired by observations and photographs. The viewer is invited to explore, contemplate and act.

This large drawing is framed with a black wooden frame 10cm wide with a unadorned flat surface and a rolled edge with a depth of 3cm. The dark adds contrast and gives the effect of looking through a window. Its pair, ‘Mudflats’ is also on show and is framed alike.

Website: www.joreitzeartist.com.au/

Wetlands, Pen on Paper