Deanne Eccles

A brief artist Bio and Statement 

I am Deanne Eccles, a painter based in Healesville Victoria, Australia. I am an abstract oil painter who works predominantly in colour and form, using personally devised techniques which I call ‘Body Sense Response’, or ‘Body Sense Perception’. These techniques were created from almost 3 decades of research and study into Goethe’s colour theory as well as other modalities such as Butoh dance. My paintings intend to describe a sensory experience and spark dialogue between myself and the viewer. Each piece is inspired by my visceral responses to external surroundings, never a direct depiction of an environment but a translation of how an environment affects me. I sit with my senses and draw emotional and physical responses out through the paintbrush as I would write my thoughts with a pencil. The result is a painting emphasised by colour and unfamiliar spatial arrangements, a work felt rather than understood. This approach was developed over decades of multidisciplinary study and practice. Namely, my training in Butoh Dance which has been the most influential on my current painting style. A school of performance that promotes a hyper-awareness of an artist's surroundings as well as their own body expressed through dance. This presence of mind and body I now express through the canvas. 

How has your understanding of your art medium or themes grown as you have continued in your career?

My career spans multiple disciplines and is characterised by versatility in both style and practice. I was an artist since I could hold a red crayon in my hand and I would soon win awards in highschool for my ability. 

I began to use my activism to inform my art in university, predominantly spruiking a strong feminist voice. When I reached a stage of painting the naked female form in heavily dense architecture, it began to crack. My imagery started to shift from what was physically obvious into the abstract realm. I was then introduced to Goethes theory of colour as well as Rudolf Steiners theory of colour and finally felt like I had come home to a language that was meaningful to me.

My studies in theory and theatre - Butoh dance and the Body Weather Dance creative - have been foundational to my current practice. They’ve led to the formulation of techniques that I call ‘Body Sense Response’ or ‘Body Sense Perception ‘. Born from my research and training in Goethe's colour theory, the effects of colour upon the human senses, form born from colour, and how to apply colour as an artist sympathetically or objectively. My work is abstract, yet can be translated into a conscious awareness through BSP by guiding the viewer through a series of questions. They begin to interpret abstraction not as a physical likeness to something, but as a sensory effector upon themself, opening up an opportunity to relate to abstraction and the works more deeply. 

Are there any particular moments or experiences that made your artwork mature or change significantly?

After I finished Year 12 and went to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts at La Trobe University, my work predominantly focused on issues of the under dog. Whether it be our First Nations people or Women. These large works were in oil and of the human figure in landscape. 

I finished my degree and after a few years I stumbled upon Steiner Education, Goethe’s and  Steiner's theories of Art and Colour. Discovering these theories, as stated above, completely transformed my understanding of the realm of Art. It finally began to make sense. 

I was also performing as an actor in theatre and began working with Anton Chekhov’s understanding of spatial awareness. I began training and working with a Green room award Director Suzanne Kersten and began exploring various techniques which made us conscious of our bodies and its response to its environment. I also began training in Butoh dance. Combining all of the above my work began to change dramatically into the realm of abstract and colour. And I have no yearning to turn back to the literal world of painting the physical world. 

Can you share how your art style or methods have changed since you first started?

My work represents an amalgamation of my interdisciplinary practice across three decades. While studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at LaTrobe University my painting style played with abstracted depictions of the human form. A female figure recurring through most of my work during this period, she featured elegantly centred among the objectifying elements of her environment. While painting was my primary source of inspiration at university I was also beginning to explore performance as a medium of expression and, after graduating, I continued my studies in theatre and movement. I worked within the ‘Body Weather’ practice under Japanese artist and pioneer of Body Weather dance, Min Tanaka. This intersection of body and environment pulled me away from the overtly political and drew me inward into the sensorial. I took a less didactic approach to art-making and began to pursue a purely sensory approach. An approach I could easily apply to my former love of painting. After studying colour theory and application in Switzerland, my passion for painting was reinvigorated and became an avenue by which I could explore performance practices and apply them to the canvas, giving them permanence. The intertwining of these two mediums informed how I create art and how I intended my art to be understood.