Hi, my name is Beverley Zerr and I am a Canadian-born, visual artist. For as long as I can remember I loved to scribble, paint and draw. Making art evokes a meditative stillness that takes me beyond time into a creative healing contented place. I feel art should be a part of daily life for anyone who desires to express their inner world.
I have studied with other artists over time in Queensland, Australia, and completed a Bachelor in Creative Industry and a Bachelor of Education, Secondary English in 2002 at Queensland University of Technology. My recent career as a HOD of secondary arts and a primary school teacher has helped inspire my art practice and supported me to continue painting while residing in different countries including; Australia, Canada, China, Brazil, and Mexico. What I paint is influenced by which country I am living in and what natural elements I discover on my daily walks.
Creating art for me is informed by the ‘knowing’ that I am ‘inseparable’ from all of life’s organic and inorganic forms within consciousness. Using various art media over time such as; pencil, watercolor, acrylic, collage, ceramic, and printmaking, my preference is oil paint as it supports the curves, layers, and space of nature abstracted within a landscape. Although my process and intentions take me through the predictable stages of creating such as; conceptional plans, sketching, and collecting images the original idea seems to evolve into another form. Paradoxically this mimics the message of life’s ever-changing nature and our inseparable part to play (create) within it.
In my current work, the deeper narratives are more ambiguous and revealed through the juxtaposition of objects, texture, color, line gaps of space, contrast, or repetition. A message of connection and the inseparable aspects of all that is organic echoes clearly through the visual metaphors. My wish is to inspire admiration and identification for our natural world through landscape compositions that hold tension contrast and movement.
My intention for practicing or teaching art is to share my appreciation for nature and our intricate connection to all things. I believe art-making, the empirical sharing of the experience or showcasing art, must play a central role in society for the healthy evolution of humanity.
