ENTWINED

(BLACKCAT Gallery, Collingwood, July-August 2019)

Entwined introduces portraiture into Bronni's otherwise animal world. Her ideas have developed from an adoration of the skill and mastery of the old masters. Of particular interest to her is the parrot used in Dutch genre paintings of the seventeenth century.

In the golden age of the newly independent Dutch republic, exotic and rare birds were imported for the wealthy and elite. Birds such as Parrots, Toucans and Birds of paradise were conspicuous symbols of prosperity, but became much more than that. They were a much loved and pampered member of the family.

Bronni's present work merges the opulent 17th century European fashions with her love of Australian native birds of the present day. Each painting holds a more intimate, symbolic meaning as some of these works embody members of her own family.