At the age of 66 Joy Lukunic is having her first solo exhibition in October 2006. In 2005 she graduated with distinctions in the Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts course at Meadowbank Tafe, a course she began three years earlier and something she had promised herself she would do in her retirement. Although she works in the traditional landscape genre, Lukunic’s approach is most original – she observes her subject out of moving car and train windows.

Like other landscape artists, Lukunic uses light as a metaphor for understanding: so that these veiled images are our search for the unknowable. “We catch glimpses of the working of the universe, but full meaning eludes us.” (Lukunic 2005)

Looking at one of Lukunic’s paintings invites contemplation of our humanness and our impermanence. A celebrated Australian landscape artist himself, Peter Kingston very generously commented that Joy’s paintings were as good as anything in The Wynne Prize and encouraged her to enter a painting in 2007. Of her artistic style he said, “I feel envious of the effortlessness of these lovely landscapes; and of her intellectual motivation, the creation of product is not utmost in this talented artist’s mind.” (Peter Kingston 2006)

Joy is one of Salmon Galleries’ Featured Artists during October 2006 – click this link to see details of her current exhibition.