Malini Lewis, Janet Neilson, Penny Peckham and Anne-Maree Taylor work with an array of print techniques including cyanotype, collagraph, relief, intaglio and monoprints.
The four artists have compatible art practices and have found a common ground in the themes they explore. ‘Vessel’ evokes a range of responses and interpretations. The works shown here reflect the features of each artist’s practice.
For Peckham, the vessel may operate as a metaphor for the female body and is at times inscribed with text — quotes taken from contemporary women — which embody a sense of power and defiance.
In exploring the vessel, Neilson is drawn to everyday domestic receptacles, some becoming her substrate, others used as a matrix for mark making. Taking inspiration from textile traditions, her work explores ideas of being wrapped, protected and comforted.
Lewis, with her alchemical approach to materials, interweaves and layers her introspective subject matter. Utilising watercolour, cyanotype, chine-colle, relief and intaglio she works with concepts of transmutation, transformation and transcendence.
The memorial nature of objects is highly valued by Taylor. Her recent travels through Rajasthan have brought her interest in the vessel into sharp focus. The tangible nature of vessels — both utilitarian objects and the pietra dura images found in grand forts and palaces — emphasises the memory and emotion these items can provoke.
Biography – Anne-Maree Taylor
Anne-Maree Taylor was a member of Studio Paradiso in
Sandon, from 2015 until January 2024. She continues to
print in Central Victoria.
She has exhibited in multiple exhibitions locally and in
Melbourne. Most recent exhibitions include at
Firestation Print Studio Armadale, Castlemaine Press
and the Art Room in Footscray.
She is a member of Castlemaine Press, Firestation Print
Studio, The Art Room, the Australian Print Council and
subscribes to Pressing Matters.
Taylor has attended print making workshops overseas,
and completed a residency at the Skopelos Art
Foundation on Skopelos Island in Greece 2023.
She recently has participated in workshops in Aluminium
Lithography, cyanotype, gel plate printing and
completed a Grampians Brushes week-long workshop in
September 2024.
She has been awarded another printmaking residency at
Skopart for September-October 2025.
Biography – Janet Neilson
Janet Neilson studied Printmaking at the South
Australian School of Art, graduating in 1990. Living in
Melbourne for 18 years, she exhibited regularly in group
shows there and in Adelaide.
Visits to Cyprus with access to a printmaking studio, as
well as a move to Central Victoria in 2016 have been
pivotal to her ongoing practice.
Living in a creative community in regional Victoria, Janet
participates regularly in the region’s Open Studio
programs. She has exhibited in successful group shows
at Lot19 Gallery (2021), Newstead Arts Hub (2023) and
Artpuff in Castlemaine (2024).
Neilson was short-listed for the inaugural Michael Beazer
Works on Paper Prize at the East Gippsland Art Gallery
in 2024. Current memberships are with Castlemaine
Press and Firestation Print Studio.
0498 987 576
janetneilson@bigpond.com
Instagram @ramshackleprints
Biography – Malani Lewis
Malini Lewis is a graduate of RMIT University, having
completed a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art - Honours) in
2018. She was awarded the year-long APW Collie Print
Trust Scholarship for Emerging Victorian Printmakers on
completion of her initial Fine Art degree in 2017.
Having lived overseas for most of her life, starting with
two exceptionally formative years in Singapore
aged nine, and subsequently including two decades in
Papua New Guinea and another two in Canada, Lewis
has naturally developed a receptive and resilient outlook
and seeks to express this in her work which also — and
for the same reasons — readily incorporates risk, found
marks and whatever else is there in the moment.
She currently lives and works in Castlemaine and
exhibits regularly, locally, in Melbourne and regional
Victoria. As a member of the Goldfields Printmakers,
Lewis exhibits interstate and occasionally, overseas.
Biography – Penny Peckham
Penny Peckham is an artist printmaker, based in
Castlemaine since 2014.
With a PhD in Art History, much of her work has been
influenced by her research areas of feminist and
women’s art more broadly.
Since completing a Diploma of Art in the late 1990s
Penny has continued to develop her skills as a
printmaker, attending workshops with teachers including Basil Hall, Sarah Amos, Glen Skein and Diane Fogwell.
She has been a member of the Goldfields Printmakers
group since 2015, regularly participating in exhibitions
with them in Australia and internationally. She is also a
member of both Castlemaine Press and the Firestation
Print Studio, exhibiting with both from time to time.
Penny is part of a group of experienced printmakers with a current touring exhibition, Time & Tide, concerned with
the way in which printmaking — and the artists’
individual practices — have evolved since the 1970s.
Time & Tide showed in Ballina NSW in late 2024, will
travel to Broken Hill in November and then to Swan Hill
Regional Gallery in late 2026.
Penny has participated in Mount Alexander open studios for the past eight years and has been a finalist in prize exhibitions including the Silk Cut Award for Linocut Prints and the Manly Library Artist Book Award.