Marilyn Barrington is an award-winning artist based in Walpole, Western Australia. During her early career, she taught in many art mediums around W.A including the West Coast College of TAFE in Carine. Her teaching career initially consisted of courses on China Painting, but over the years, broadened to include drawing, painting, and teaching 2D and 3D studies. Marilyn has now retired, but her love for art has never ceased.
Her current creative passion is encaustic painting; an ancient painting method that has survived for thousands of years. The technique involves hot liquid beeswax mixed with various pigments. Artists then use resin to carefully manipulate the consistency of the mixture to harden it and paint it on a variety of surfaces. Finally, heat is applied over the canvas to create a uniform film over the painting, giving encaustic painting its ethereal beauty. Due to the practical difficulties of using a medium requiring such precise manipulation of heat and resin, many artists don’t pursue encaustic techniques across the entirety of their career. Marilyn, who has always been interested in using multimedia tools, saw an opportunity with encaustic painting and evolved her own unique style. Currently, her works involve gesso prepared boards with application of inks, pigments, charcoal or watercolour topped with layers of beeswax and damar resin.
Alongside encaustic Marilyn still explores other creative media, such as painting on porcelain. In her artwork, ESCAPE I, a painted porcelain piece, she gained recognition by the Art Gallery of W.A for her unique style and creativity.
Marilyn is very passionate about the environment; global warming, wildfires and wildlife. Current events such as war and the recent Covid pandemic are also reflected in her artworks. Dreamtime stories from Aboriginal culture provide another source of inspiration as does her love of birds, in particular parrots, and her concerns for their declining numbers.
Marilyn’s works capture specific moments in time and create an emotional connection with the viewer. “My work is constantly evolving, as is our environment,” she says.
Marilyn lived in Trigg for forty years before moving to Walpole. When asked what it is about Walpole or the Southwest region that she most enjoys, she answered; ‘the space, the beauty, the natural environment, the people, and the community spirit.’
[This feature article was created by Cherie Shin – a third year UWA student, undertaking a semester-long internship with SFA]
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