Art2Muse

Artworks available to view at the gallery

Ami Summers is a Melbourne based artist, working from her 75 acre farm in West Gippsland. During her education at Monash University, Ami thoroughly enjoyed her drawing mentorship with Dobell Prize winner and acclaimed landscape artist Mary Tonkin. She credits her drawing approach to her teacher, who taught her to treat an object as part of the whole landscape.

After completing a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) at Monash in 2005, Ami began her Masters in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with a focus on how creative thinking can be applied to industry, the community and through adversity. After experiencing the Victorian bushfires in 2009, Ami continued her consulting work in bushfire recovery, working on projects to help communities rebuild through personal development and training. She has been given a unique opportunity to use this experience to think more creatively in her work and in her painting, and its impact can be seen in many of her works from 2009 onwards.

Moving from Melbourne CBD to this rural setting invited parallels between crowds of people and individuals behaviours, to the behaviours and nuances of animals and space. The space and air of Gippsland can be felt in her wispy, white washed and sometimes desolate paintings, as she looks out onto the vast Latrobe Valley from the hills of the Strzelecki Ranges. Her works are often inspired by the humorous and playful connection she has with her animals, and spends many hours in the bush or the paddocks observing their behaviour and interpreting that through her paintings. The 35 acres of forest on their property that Ami uses for inspiration was nationally recognized for its significance in 2010 through the Department of Sustainability and Environment, when they were awarded a grant to maintain and preserve this special piece of bush. She has a deep connection with the bush and all that hides beneath it, which can be seen through her portrait like portrayal of cows and birds. Her cow series were born from her and her husband's cattle when they first moved to their farm in 2007, where they learnt about farming and caring for these gentle giants. Ami's bird series blossomed from the garden she is creating out of overgrown paddocks, and as it grows, it attracts an array of birds right up to her studio window.

I started observing the cows when we bought our farm in Gippsland last year. They were such curious creatures and I found that they were a beautiful, tangible link to how I felt around the farm. It made me feel so grateful for our move to the country when I was in their presence, to be given an opportunity to be trusted by these great gentle beasts enough to join their pack.

They were like a very best friend; each morning I would look forward to seeing my buddies, who made me feel calm and intrigued. I would sit in the middle of their calm crowd, and they would gather around me inquisitively, until I was sure they would trample me. But they would just stand around, like a crowd at a gallery, watching me paint, sniffing the canvas, critiquing silently.

It was then I noticed parallels with human crowds - some of them would act like the boisterously drunken art goer - knocking my canvas over when I turned my back, impolitely rubbing themselves on my paint tins, or standing in the back of the crowd, displaying the most tranquil but nervous stare, like they wanted to ask me questions but their painful shyness overtook...

I was invited into their wonderful world of vulnerability. Their masses no longer intimidated me, their flighty movements no longer made me anxious. Every day I found myself wondering what they would think of my next paintings. They became my muse, my favourite critics. I enjoyed their company, as a group, more than any human crowd I have ever experienced.

Even though they seemed somewhat sad sometimes, the air around them always appeared light, wispy, sure - they are by far the most captivating things I have ever observed.

-Ami Summers, 2007

Born in Melbourne, December 1980.

Education

2007 - Masters of Entrepreneurship Innovation - Creative Thinking
Swinburne University of Technology
2000 - Bachelor of Fine Art - Painting
Monash University

Training

2001 - Mary Tonkin, Dobell Drawing Prize winner 2000
1999 - Leonard Long, acclaimed landscape artist

Sponsorship

2006 - Stumpy Gully Vineyard The Canopy Drawings project

Exhibitions

2009 - Art2Muse, Double Bay NSW -Ami Summers

2009 - Art2Muse, Mossvale NSW - Tudor House Show

2009 - Art Melbourne 09, Carlton, Vic - Represented by Brunswick Street Gallery

2008 - Art2Muse at the Tom Dunne Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney

2007 - Art Sydney 07, Moore Park, NSW - Represented by Brunswick Street Gallery

2007 - Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy, Vic - 'Small Works Show'

2006 - MIR Gallery, CBD Vic - 'Works on paper' Conversations with Sophie Calle

2006 - McCulloch Gallery, CBD Vic - 'The Canopy Drawings'

2006 - Contemporary Art Society - 'The Collectors Exhibition'

2004 - The Artists Gallery, Fitzroy Vic - 'Good Wood'

2004 - Monash Project Space, Caulfield Vic - 'Bent Straight'

2003 - Motorworks Gallery, St Kilda Vic - 'The Ryder-Cheshire Foundation'

2003 - Gardner Contemporary Art, Hawthorn Vic - 'Art and Pain'

2003 - Eckersley's Open Space, CBD Vic - 'Enter the Disposable Hierarchy of Now'

Publications and Appearances

2006 - Contemporary Art Society of Victoria 'Collectors Exhibition Publication'

2004 - Appearance on Sunday program, Channel 9 - Linden Postcard Show 2004

2003 - Look Magazine, Issue 2 (2003) 'Look now' Ami Summers

Commissions considered

Contact Katrina Hampton +61-424809849 / +61 2 9697 3299