About Chantelle Blake
Chantelle is an Australia-based artist, graphic designer, and webdesigner
who has been involved in the arts since her childhood.
She is known for her rich and delicate style, often executed with juxtapositions of
traditional and contemporary in her concepts, visual subjects, and materials.
She was initially informally trained by herself and family members, particularly
her grandfather whose heritage in the art field was as a painter and ink cartoonist.
In the childhood years that followed, her training relied primarily on in-school
art classes with occassional extra-curricular courses in painting, dying, and ceramics.
Her artistic development took an abrupt turn in 1998 when she discovered online artist
communities, which introduced a new world of contemporary art in the form of
digital artwork and the role of the artist in the cyber age.
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My influences were a motley crew.
On one hand I grew up with the pensive, intricate, delicate, and velvety works
of Pre-Raphaelites, the Quattrocento, and the Rococo movement.
On the other hand, there were the violent, haphazard, and "quintessentially Australian"
works of Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd... along with Dali's bizarre fantasias and
Disney's simplicity.
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In 2000 she became an avid contributor to the G&H Art Agency, which was comprised
of artists from around the world. It was through these connections that she began to
delve into the use of digital media, which further contributed to her hybrid style.
In spite of her rising interest in digital media, Chantelle still maintained a love of her
traditional painting, and she regularly painted sets and props for Sydney-based
performance companies, as well as painting original arts and crafts for sale at
local events and fundraisers.
While at high school she applied for a secondment with one of Australia's leading
design studios, for which she was accepted. She later received the highest marks
for her school in her Higher School Certicate for Visual Arts and was selected for ArtExpress.
In early 2006, her conceptual and aesthetic prowess led to her work being
exhibited in
AGNSW,
where she also gave presentations to art students and art teachers.
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The highlight of my career thus far was when I was invited by Tristan Sharp
of the Art Gallery of New South Wales to present talks to art students and
their teachers. It was a great honour and sparked a great deal of self-reflection.
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