lostalgia | Sophie Gralton

An exhibition of oils on canvas using mixed media based on themes of nostalgic maternal images of childhood lost.

Lostalgia is a haunting and poignant exhibition of 31 works created by Sophie Gralton.

Heavily themed with images of children, these arresting paintings are reminiscent of 17th century Dutch portraits of children. Sophie, however, has infused them with overtones of contemporary Australian childhood.

“My childhood in rural Victoria as the middle of five children was a noisy, vivid and the happy time filled with the overflowing hotch potch of family life in the country,” said Sophie.

“In today’s era of sleek minimalism, designer kitchens and crisply sterile modernism, I mourn for a time when children could remember what it was like to have milk bottles with foil tops, a baker that delivered to your home and the postie rode a bike. In my own childhood in the country our milk was delivered by horse and cart. That era has gone – and I want to capture now the childhood that my own children are experiencing by incorporating in my artwork, pieces of memorabilia of this current generation.”

Sophie’s works include mixed media such as old linoleum, manila tags, childrens’ story books and postage stamps, which are directly applied to the canvas.

“The faces of the children in my paintings are obscured as it was not the intention for them to be conventional portraits but rather fleeting impressions of youth and childhood memory, rather than of the individuals themselves,” said Sophie.

Sophie studied fashion and textile design at Sydney College of the Arts and worked for five years as a textile designer. She then studied at the National Arts School (Sydney) and graduated in 1996 with a degree in Fine Arts. This is the fifth solo exhibition for Sophie.

This exhibition is a continuation of themes I’ve explored before. Once again the old linoleum, manila tags, notes, children’s story books and old stamps are morphed with what seem to be traditional representations of children. This time they are directly applied to the canvas rather than being actually rendered.

The iconography for this exhibition was suggested by bourgeois 17th century Dutch portraits of children, however I’ve tried to give them a more contemporary Australian sensibility.

Their faces are obscured as I did not want them to be conventional portraits but rather fleeting impressions of youth and memory generally, rather than of the individuals themselves.

Sophie Gralton
2008