Biographical note
Jacqueline is a visual artist who is interested in landscapes, exploring human connections with natural environments and the sense of belonging that comes from knowing oneself in place. Painting is the artist’s dominant medium, but drawing, collage, photography and moving image are also processes employed. After moving north to Cairns from northern NSW in 2011 the local tropical environment has become an area of continuous intrigue and focus of Jacqueline’s creative practice.
Research topic
Wayfaring in FNQ: Combining painting and walking practices to reveal new understandings of the Far North Queensland natural landscape
Research outline
This research explores how painting has the capacity to reveal deeper understandings of local Cairns landscapes and deepen our connection with them. In a current context of often fast-paced and sedentary lifestyles, meaningful connections with the natural environment are often replaced by second-hand digital experiences. Walking is employed as a counterpoint to such lifestyles, where the slow physical pace encourages embodied perceptions, contemplative thought and imaginative mind wandering. The direct experiences of walking local tracks are then re-interpreted in the painting studio. The painting process is performative, slow and contemplative, aiming to capture the movement and unique attributes of the tropical landscape as experienced on foot.
This research is practice-led where findings are delivered in both creative work and a written dissertation.
Research questions
- How can painting evoke a unique visual elucidation of movement and a sense of place to enrich understandings of the FNQ environment?
- How can walking be used as a strategy to develop imaginative insights and connections with the FNQ natural landscape? How can this attitude be explored as a basis for original creative work?
Supervisory team
Associate Professor Robyn Glade-Wright
Associate Professor Jennifer Deger
Dr Eduardo de la Fuente
Research outputs
Interior | Exterior: Landscapes from the Far North, Solo Exhibition, Cairns Regional Gallery, 2014
Trilogy, Group exhibition, Kick Contemporary Arts Cairns, 2015
Wayfaring, Solo exhibition, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns, 2017
Research grants
Australian postgraduate Award 2015-2017
Conference papers
Scotcher, J. (2015, November). Movement and internal wandering: Combining walking and painting practices to shape our connection to the physical Far North Queensland environment. Paper presented at the The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Conference, Cairns.
Scotcher, J. (2017, September). Walking in tropical terrains: The influence of the Cairns landscape on painting practice and aesthetic experience. Paper presented at the Tropics of the Imagination conference, Singapore.
Publications
Scotcher, J. (2016). Wayfaring and creative practice in Tropical Far North Queensland landscapes. eTropic, 15(2).
Teaching experience
Sessional lecturer in Visual Arts, JCU Cairns 2013 – current
- Introduction to Creative Practice
- Painting Concepts & Techniques
- Art History & Theory
- Contemporary Concepts & Communication
- Overseas Study Tour- Tutor
Mentor Artist & Workshops at local schools (TAS, Trinity Bay & Cairns Distance Education, Mt. Surprise, Georgetown & Forsayth)