Monica
Ashlee Becks
- Sitter: Monica Rohan
- Medium: Oil on Canvas
- Dimensions: 120cm x 180cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
- Categories: Female artist
About the artwork
Monica Rohan is one of Brisbane’s most respected painters, a multiple Archibald Prize finalist whose work is held in public and private collections across Australia.
When artist Ashlee Becks visited Monica at her home, she found exactly what she was looking for, a life lived entirely in and around art. This portrait captures the chaos, pattern and accumulated textures of a life as a practicing artist. “Her house is incredible, so many knickknacks and acquired artworks from other artists. The tablecloth on the table is a fabric she has used in her own paintings.” Viewed from above, Monica sits at the centre of it all, calm and still amid the busyness surrounding her.
Rohan and Becks are both introverted artists, a shared quality that gives the portrait a particular understanding. There is no performance here, just a shared and unspoken understanding. One quiet observer, seen clearly by another.
About the artist
Ashlee Becks is an early career artist currently living and working in Edinburgh, Scotland. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from Queensland College of Art and Design, her intimate, pattern-rich paintings explore domesticity and the quiet emotional textures of everyday life. A four-time Brisbane Portrait Prize finalist, she has held solo exhibitions at Artereal Gallery, Sydney and Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane.
