If the planets are in alignment there are times you get to do the things you want. For me that happened when I rented a studio space where I was able to fully discover the joy of painting. Art has always been my passion, but it had always been something I did on my own way. Visual expression influences everything in my physical world. By the time the studio space was mine I was ready to embrace and explore my creative dream. With the wealth of life experiences, I was able to hone my skills and discover my trait. I am settled in this “figurative conversation” and am enabled to express myself in ways for which there are no words.
About Toni Messiter
Approach
Toni Messiter is a self-taught painter who began her practice over 20 years ago. She has a deep and enduring adoration for painting. Messiter’s use of the framework of traditional portraiture conveys the sensitive complexities of family relationships through the subject of dolls. Rather than painting humans, Messiter’s choice in subject imbues a nurturing capacity, enhancing the dramatic effect and influence on the viewer as they take in the unfolding ruminations of human condition.
Light and Tone
With an eye for light and tone, Messiter uses bold brush strokes in a free manner when building a picture, which speaks to a close knowledge of her subject. Her ongoing fascination with dolls as subjects is playful and inherently personal. There is an intimacy to the series, which was created as a part of a self-reflexive process.
Inspiration
Of her early inspiration, Diego Velåzquez is a clear reference. The artist comments, 'I tried to find out everything I could about Las Meninas (1656) and Velåzquez. Very little is known about him except that he was a court painter. I read about the court of King Philip IV of Spain to learn about Velåzquez indirectly, and read the stories of the family, the children and the roles the dwarves played.' Messiter's curiosity about the social and political hierarchy of the courts is manifested in the small doll figures, which explore nurturing, love, rivalry, jealousy and coercion.
Style and Subject
Messiter's style and subject are significant in their ability to provide perspective on behaviours and etiquette from the past that exist amongst families today. Placing her subjects in billowing dresses and period costumes, the artist uses elements of theatre and costume to enhance the level of drama and facade in her works. As with the emotional and psychological narrative intensity of Velåzquez's court paintings, Messiter builds tensions between the subjects and their interactions. Enhancing the sense of changing moods in each work are the shifting backgrounds, which morph into dark landscapes or even pure abstraction.
Lived Experience
Blurring the line between the imagined and the real, the titles allude to the closeness of the work to the artist's past and present experiences. Drawing from her childhood, ‘Hungarian Cousin’ references Messiter's cousin who married a Hungarian in Australia in the 1950s. He had been a part of a group of acrobats commandeered by the Nazis during the Second World War. Moving between the fictitious and the autobiographical, the strength of Messiter's work is her ability to paint lived experience.
From shifting glances to long-held gazes, the figures in Messiter’s work evoke dialogues that mirror the happiness, cheer and anxieties of relationships in contemporary life. Situated in the context and costuming of Old Masters' portraits, Messiter has created compelling compositions that hold the viewer's gaze, drawing them into a conversation about moral dilemmas, dramas and etiquette.
Explore Messiter’s art
