SOMETIMES you have to plunder the past to find inspiration for the future.

For her latest exhibition Fragments from my Past and Present, veteran artist Lynne Tinley ransacked her house to unearth old paintings and prints she had created in her care-free youth.

Many were skeletal in nature or partly finished ideas or visions, but they all had that wide-eyed enthusiasm and energy synonymous with the first flush of youth.

It reignited her creative spark and she started making collages from fragments of her earlier works.

• Fragmentation of land by White Gum Valley artist Lynne Tinley (below).

“In these old works I have found an aliveness and spontaneity that have re-awakened the emotion and motivation that I had at those earlier times,” Tinley says.

“Being a profuse worker, especially on paper, I have many grades of paintings or prints that have never been exhibited and which have been kept purely for that aliveness – it is these that have been torn or cut in order to build more complex compositions of layered geometric and colour design that still captures the aliveness and the poignancy of the memories.”

Riding high on a wave of nostalgia and newfound creativity, Tinley created 32 new artworks for Fragments from my Past and Present.

Most were collages of old watercolour paintings or prints, with the odd completely new work.

“In both instances they have been fresh responses to work done in the past and a reconsidering of them and my emotional state back then,” Tinley says.

“My subject matter is, as were all my works in the past, emotional responses to the earth and life on Earth – with the difference being that the human figure is now making an appearance whereas it never used to.

“These figures hark back with a gentle potency to my origins and the San rock paintings in South Africa.”

Tinley is married to ecologist Ken, and over the years the couple have travelled extensively in Africa and Australia.

During these trips, Tinley would venture into the wilds to paint stunning landscapes and all manner of colourful birds and exotic animals.

“Now that my husband and I do not travel as much as we used to, I rely on sketchbooks or past works to spark inspiration,” she says.

The couple are now based at the artists’ housing co-operative (SHACC) in White Gum Valley. 

An artist for more than 60 years with 30 solo exhibitions under her belt and 17 works in public art collections, Tinley could be forgiven for resting on her laurels.

But she’s still keen to evolve as an artist and learn new, or perhaps unlearn old, techniques.

“Over the course of my evolution as an artist I have continued to develop my spontaneous approach to new levels,” Tinley says.

“Most recently I have been using my intuitive mark-making together with a more considered focus on the visual design of my artworks.”

At the heart of Tinley’s work is the notion that we are all at one with nature: “My intention has been to see beyond the particulars of place and individual beings to intuitions of spirit and spiritual connection.”

Fragments from my Past and Present is at the SHACC Colab2 gallery in Cower Mews, White Gum Valley from April 26 to May 8, with Tinley giving an artist’s talk on April 27 at 11am.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK