Print Media

Profile – Janine Mackintosh
Australian Art Review
September–October 2012
Jan Jones

Suspended disbelief draws the viewer instantaneously… Her work cannot be easily passed over; it draws one into it, demanding concentration on a number of levels, one of which is often missing in contemporary art today – that of contemplative engagement by the viewer. The collecting, the placement, the working out, the patience, the obsession, the understanding and final realisation of perfected beauty are all part of an intimidating process.

Click here to read the full review

Meshing art with space
Fleurieu Living Magazine
Autumn 2014
Quentin Chester

There’s a teasing paradox here. An artist on song, delving ever deeper into the minutiae of her very backyard. An artist producing work that is resolutely true to its site and provocative in its pitch. Yet, at the same, conjuring art objects that reach out with a mystique and universal appeal all of their own… Each is an ardent marker of place at its most granular.

Click here to read the full article

Quentin Chester

The Blake Book
Art, Religion and Spirituality in Australia

1951 – 2011
Rosemary Crumlin OAM
Macmillan Art Publishing

Click here for more information

Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery
Australian Art Review
Issue 31, January – February 2012
Victoria Hynes

A significant feature of the gallery’s annual program is the ‘Outback Prize’… The $15,000 acquisitive prize was this year awarded to Janine Mackintosh from Kangaroo Island, who constructed a mixed media mandala-like work out of fibre and twigs.

SA Life

Work on the Wild Side
SA Life, April 2014
Lance Campbell, Arts Editor

Kangaroo Island has a wild beauty and energy. On the island things still happen naturally – things that humans can’t control… Janine’s attention to detail has taken her preservationist artworks into public and private collections around the world.

SA Life, April 2014
Lance Campbell, Arts Editor

Our Artful Isle
Fleurieu Living Magazine
Spring 2012
Quentin Chester

When it comes to art, a little isolation can work wonders. To many practitioners, Kangaroo Island offers much needed space and sanctuary for plying their art. A large number also fuel their creative fire direct from the island’s wilder assets – its unique and abounding mix of creatures, resplendent mallee habitats and unfetted shorelines.

Art’s Next Big Thing?
Melbourne Weekly, Cover Story
18 May 2011
Stephen A Russell and Mary-Jane Daffy

Co-curator of Art Melbourne, Jane O’Neill, is clear about this year’s bankable artists. “If I was going to the Art Fair to invest, I’d make a beeline for Janine Mackintosh…”

Tiser

Art Hat-Trick in Waterhouse Prize
Adelaide Now/The Advertiser
Photograph: Brenton Edwards
August 26, 2011

Good things come in three for artist Janine Mackintosh who has again won the $5,000 People’s Choice Award in the SA Museum’s Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize. It is the third time Mackintosh’s art has been exhibited as a finalist in the Waterhouse competition, and the third time the public has voted her work as its favourite.

Adelaide Matters

Natural Flair
Adelaide Matters, July/August 2009
Words: Catherine Bauer
Photograph: Russell Millard

Her interest in the natural environment stems back to childhood but came to the fore in 2000 when she bought a bush property on Kangaroo Island, which has since been heritage listed.

‘I wanted to identify all the species on the property so I started collecting specimens and stitching them onto card as part of the process. I loved all of the imperfections. They make you think about how they came about, the stories behind them and really my work evolved from that. People might stop and look at a tree and appreciate its beauty. But I want to get people to really think about it by breaking everything down to its smallest element.’ JM

Words: Catherine Bauer
Photograph: Russell Millard

Into The Woods

Wild, July-August 2010
Quentin Chester

In many ways the journey to knowing the mallee has just begun. But it’s unfolding all over the country in parks, on farms and private lands. Boobook Hill Reserve is tucked away on the eastern end of Kangaroo Island. Preserving a swathe of narrow-leaf mallee, it’s a personal vocation for artist Janine Mackintosh and her partner Richard Glatz. An entomologist by profession, one of Richard’s pastimes is the insects of the island. His collection – the largest specific to KI – now exceeds 10,000 specimens.

Looking at the leaves the insects were eating, in turn prompted Janine to consider their artistic possibilities. So began a major series of works in which she has arranged hundreds of individual leaves in elaborate mandalas. Each of the leaves is carefully hand stitched to linen. It’s an act of astonishing devotion and design, though Janine is quick to pay tribute to her materials: “The leaves have so many beautiful and subtle differences. Working with them means I already have a starting point, a lot of the work is already done. I’m just highlighting their nuances of colour and form, so it’s really a form of collaboration.”

Being in a mallee expanse takes us in two directions. One is to a level of intricate detail, the other is to the experience of nature en masse. In their own way Janine’s collages have the kind of energy that compels us with this same dual field of vision. More than that though, they are extraordinary exercises in loyalty to place, objects that radiate a joy bound to the natural order of things. It’s the kind of art that makes the humble mallee scrub anything but weird or grotesque. Step by gentle step things are changing. By what we know and share, walking in the company of these trees feels more like home every day.

Words: Catherine Bauer
Photograph: Russell Millard

Into The Wild
Gourmet Traveller Magazine, June 2008
Words: Michelle Rowe
Photography: Sharyn Cairns

Introducing Australia’s first ‘super-lodge’, a luxury eco-retreat on Kangaroo Island where utter isolation is its biggest drawcard. Step into another world at the exquisite Southern Ocean Lodge.

On the dining-room walls is a series of artworks by local artist Janine Mackintosh, who has collected thousands of tiny leaves from the island and stitched them in formation onto her canvases.

Words: Michelle Rowe
Photography

Kangaroo Island
Qantas Magazine, January 2009
Words: Jane Paech
Photography: Ben Searcy

One artist rapidly gaining recognition is Janine Mackintosh, her unique natural collages now hang in the Great Room at Southern Ocean Lodge. Unusually shaped and weathered eucalyptus leaves are meticulously collected before being dried and stitched onto canvas capturing both the spirit of the island and the many intricate processes at work in the Australian bush.

Words: Jane Paech
Photography: Ben Searcy