Author Rosalind Lemoh, The Gundaroo Gazette, April issue volume 230, 2023.
It’s a muggy wet Autumn day on the tail end of March. The grass on the farms stretching along Sutton road is long and brown despite the rain that’s pouring down. Sylvie Carter, artist and former Gundaroo resident brims with energy when we meet at the industrial trend den of Nishi’s Monster Café, Acton Canberra, where she now lives. She’s fresh from dropping off a new painting at the Archibald Prize in Sydney’s Art Gallery of NSW. Her submission this year is of composer and pianist Margaret Brandman, entitled ‘Rapt’ Oil on Board. As Sylvie reflects, for her it’s not about getting the exact copy of someone, it is always about the human story.
Sylvie begun her art practice in 2007 and shifted to portraiture in the last few years to follow her passion for storytelling. She’s interested not in photorealism but in uncovering the personal and the particular energy of the individual, their history and/or a sense of time and place.
Recalling back to her childhood in Gundaroo, she recounts the times spent growing up on her family’s farm, on Back Creek road, overlooking the village. Her memories as a child include her mother painting with her girlfriend in the bush in oil and her meticulous passion for making and sewing rag dolls. In a time when the newspaper was THE news, Sylvie remembers the 4 inchs of snow (Sago snow) that fell in Gundaroo on the 22nd November 1996, enough to hit the front page of the Canberra times, with Gary Hogen her neighbour, photographed for the article. Sylvie reminisces on helping her father to herd their his fine wool marino sheep before getting his first working dogs and of finding the trick to use a salt brick to lure them across paddock, “you only need one to come over” laughs Sylvie “the rest will follow’. She talks about her bush blood, of caring for poddy cows, quarter horse riding, pulling thistles out of the ground thick with worms and marking this as a good spot to plant in rich fertile soil. Characters and stories fill up the past including the Prickly Farmer and Matt Crowe of the Crowe’s Bar aka the Colonial inn and his family who used to live in the small room with the fireplace and who’s only daughter would operate the petrol bowser that was then on Cork St. Sylvie remembers her mother who was instrumental in forming the ‘Back Creek Ladies Luncheon Group’, a social group who would get together every month and bring a plate to share. The importance of connection out in this little regional village recognised as critical and important to foster connections and the exchange of knowledge and support stretches back across the years.
Sylvie’s work is currently on show in the ‘Valleys, Views and Vines’ solo exhibition at the Lake George Winery, showing a variety of her bush landscapes from the region. Her latest portraiture work ‘Honouring Corporal Ernest Albert Corey’ is a finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize 2023 and took extensive researching through the archives of the Australian War Memorial. Selecting this image of this relatively unknown Australian war hero, a former Blacksmith striker from Numeralla who would go on to be awarded four medals as a member of the ‘Men from Snowy River March’ during the battle for the Hindenberg Line WW1 on 29 September 1918. In piecing together parts from history, Sylvie discussed the role of the artists as a kind of art detective, carefully gathering and collecting the smallest of details to reimagine the times of marching uniforms, wounded soldiers and stretcher bearers with bandages stuffed in their pockets. Sylvie speaks passionately about acknowledging the bravery and the humble service of Corporal Corey who risked his life countless times in saving others. “Ernie was kept busy, crawling out to no mean’s land and repeatedly dragging the wounded to the safety of a shell hole.” [1] One story goes of one man who had to have his left arm amputated under fire, only to plead with Corey to retrieve the wedding ring still left on his four finger.
Sylvie’s previous portrait for the Gallipoli Art Prize was also selected as a finalist and included a portrait of her father standing with his 5 Field Survey Company team. in a swamp, Papua New Guinea during WWII. Her father’s name Harry Judge is inscribed on the Cork St Anzac memorial, wreathed every year with Anzac Day and the dawn ceremony.
As a full time practicing artist since 2020, Sylvie has travelled to Italy, held exhibitions and been finalist in national art prizes. Sylvie talks about her ethos of being open and always listening. She reminds me that “as an artist, we are giving” and she reflects on how important the smallest details can be for piecing together stories from the past for family and friends. She reminds us how important connection and sharing stories is, “don’t forget to ask about the little things..they’re things that we are left questioning.”