Robyn Sweaney
Emoh Ruo

Robyn Sweaney, Emoh Ruo

I have recently developed a fascination for the post-war Australian home. Places with fibro, brick veneers, simple wooden facades, picket fences, pitched roofs, aluminium windows and flower beds, all defining and obediently arranged within the parameters of the suburban block. At one time I dismissed these houses as uninteresting, even ugly. Now, in a time, in which people are building bigger and bigger homes, which consume every inch of their block, I have a new found appreciation of these homes and what they represent.

Emoh Ruo, (Our Home spelt backwards), comprises paintings and drawings of houses from Northern NSW from where I live. These are modest homes, harking back to another era.
The houses shown are real homes, chosen for their simple beauty and economy. They are the homes of people who have created an intimate and unique environment reflecting their lives and tastes.

Built to face the street and with tidy, spacious surrounds, the exterior of the post-war home is open to view. We will usually take a fleeting glance at such houses if passing by, but if we stop and observe more carefully, we can take in further details in the balance and patterns that the occupants have created. The symmetry of the garden, the choice of paint colour, the blinds and awnings necessary to prevent further invasions of their privacy, all define a space between what is expressed within the safety of the fences and what is retained as strictly personal.

These houses are part of an Australian suburban landscape, and though outwardly generic, they vary according to their locale and consequently affect the feel and character of that area. My works are of places distinct to my area. They identify the mood of each place at a particular time of day, and time of year. They represent homes, not just houses, threatened and in a state of flux due to changing cultural values.

These works are mementos for lives that have existed and which continue, behind the familiar street façade. They are my homage to the art of the home.

Click here for the ABC By Design program talk “House Painter” Saturday 8th December