• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
The Interiors Addict

The Interiors Addict

Style without the Snobbery

Job Board
  • Job Board
  • About
  • Before & Afters
  • RENO ADDICT
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Kids Rooms
  • Bedrooms
  • Living Room
  • Shopping
  • Expert Tips
  • Recipes
  • Parenting
  • Travel
Interiors Addict
  • About
    • Our Story

      Australia’s largest interior design, styling and renovation blog for the everyday Aussie. By former journalist and magazine editor Jen Bishop, the original interiors addict!
      READ MORE

      We’re big on Instagram!
      @interiorsaddict

      • About
      • Contact Interiors Addict
      • Work with Interiors Addict
      • Advertise / Find a job in Interiors
      • Press
      • Subscribe

    • How to Pull a Living Room Look Together eBookSubscribe to the Newsletter!
  • By Room
    • Browse by Room

      Where you can search for all our posts about a specific room. Only interested in kitchens and bathrooms? We got you!

      • Kitchens
      • Bathrooms
      • Kids Rooms
      • Bedrooms
      • Living Room
      • Home Office
      • Dining
      • Laundry
      • Outdoor & Exteriors
      • Renting
    • How to Pull a Living Room Look Together eBookSubscribe to the Newsletter!
  • Before & Afters
    • Before & Afters

      Who doesn’t LOVE a good before & after? If you want to be inspired by the whole reno process, and not just the shiny photos at the end, this is the place for you!

      View Articles

      • Before & Afters
      • Jen’s reno
      • Real Renos
      • RENO ADDICT
    • Snapseed-14Navy weatherboard house: a crazy good before & after
    • Skylights_web_JacquiTurk-1Skylights have transformed our living room: here’s all the details
  • Reno Addict
    • RENO ADDICT

      Looking for reno inspo? Find it all here, from other people’s projects to the latest trends, tools and products, whether you’re DIY-ing or employing trades.

      View articles

      • Reno Products
      • DIY
      • Reno Trends
      • Before & Afters
      • Real Renos
    • Rear extensionMelbourne heritage overlay makes for unique renovation solution
    • Hallway styling ideas to make the best first impression
  • Shopping
    • Shopping

      Want to know where to buy the latest furniture, homewares, rugs, art and more? We’re always sharing our latest finds and telling you where you can buy them.

      View Articles

      • Furniture
      • Homewares
      • Art
      • Smart Home
      • Appliances
      • Reno Products
    • unnamed-54How to buy art online and some of the best places to find it
    • De Crecy taper candlesTaper candles take over from the jar variety in new trend we’re loving!
  • Inspiration
    • Inspiration

      While Jen’s a legitimate interiors addict, she’s no design professional, so she calls on an army of the country’s best to share their expertise with you. Be inspired by their stories too!

      View Articles

      • Decorating 101
      • Interviews
      • Expert Tips
      • Before & Afters
      • House Tours
      • Designers
      • Styling
      • Renovating
      • Real Renos
      • Covet my coffee table
    • md_TAM-Rooms-12Luxury hotels NSW: Tamworth gets its own 5-star glamour
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle

      We’re mostly about the home but Jen also likes to share other things she thinks you’ll love, like food and travel.

      • Recipes
      • Travel
      • Parenting
    • Banquette seatingThe Star Sydney: New Italian restaurant features interiors by TomMarkHenry
    • SOUL-of-Gerringong-backyard5 ways to make more money from your holiday property
  • Jobs
    • Advertise on our Job Board
    • Job Board FAQs for advertisers

Meet Pamela Irving, the artist behind some of Australia’s most iconic public art

March 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

Facebook0Pin00Email0Tweet0

By Freddy Grant

Remember when Larry La Trobe, the popular bronze statue of a dog in Melbourne’s City Square, was kidnapped? Well the woman behind some of Australia’s most iconic public art is revisiting our canine friends in her upcoming exhibition Doggerel Dreams. But even though she is famed for her humorous imagery, she says she is serious about her art.

Larry
Larry La Trobe

Pamela Irving has been telling stories through art since 1982. “I have always been a creative person, I can’t help myself. I have a compulsion to create. I love stories, my work is very narrative, so instead of writing stories I tell them through my artworks.”

WFUvgivXyD1b2BUkxteUVtNOXaxK1dNbqdzrRmYIOmo
Kick Up Ya Heels Harry (from Doggerel Dreams)

One of Pamela’s favourite works is Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden, the monumental mosaic sculpture park in Tuscany. She has even created her own version on a smaller scale in her courtyard. “My courtyard is completely covered in mosaics. It’s called the Birds of a Feather Courtyard. The roof top ledges are covered in bird figurines and all the walls are covered with mosaic birds. It’s really joyous; it’s a celebration of kitsch.”

3DnQmnG8R9vou3UoIMINsgmM4VLiaobJCC5Z_MsOlWM
Birds of a Feather Courtyard

So kitsch in fact that when the director of Luna Park (one of the kitschiest places in Australia!) saw it, she wanted Pamela to create something similar for the park. “Luna Park was a wonderful commission which took four years to complete. Making works for the public domain is very satisfying. I have been very fortunate to get some wonderful locations for my work like the City Square and Luna Park, both iconic locations.”

Luna Park
Luna Park

Throughout her career she’s needed to do both commissions and her own exhibitions to make a living, but says she wouldn’t take on a project that didn’t feel right. “It’s actually quite a challenge to do some commissions and you learn a lot from doing them. Commissions make you problem solve. I don’t take commissions that require me to work in a way I am not comfortable with, for example, I would not take on a commission to do realistic portraiture, I could do it, but it’s not my natural inclination. Doing that is not fair to the client nor to myself.”

bEdLdAdZ7nOTIq-Zy8ejm39iNEYOG3ubyiDzNRE1yjw,NsPhssRUlpc0nx2C44MuY_3cMcAeQMOEe7jhbee5Fzg
Luna Park

Although she uses humour in her pieces, she insists she takes her work seriously. “I use humour to tell my stories. I like to be happy, I try to surround myself with things and people who make me smile. Just because something is playful or humorous does not mean I am not serious about what I do. I trained formally, but my natural inclination is to work playfully.”

She also realises how motherhood has changed her style. “My work has grown and changed over the years. I have been making art full-time since 1982. Having children lightened my palette and approach to making art.“

Pyhy-Xq68FXY6CZMSrdLAH6_yiczN5TkcK9kjBJiO_4
Luna Park

Pamela’s achievements just keep on building. Not only has her sculptural mosaic Mr Logomania, the Man who Loves Words recently been acquired by the Museum of Art in Ravenna — considered the most prestigious mosaics collection in the world — she is also being exhibited alongside one of her art heroes, Sidney Nolan, at WG Art Consultants’ show Works on Paper II 2015: an exhibition of important works. Sidney is a toss-up with Arthur Boyd for Pamela’s favourite Australian artist.

“Both were very inventive, both created iconic Australian images and constantly developed their styles right up to their deaths. Both Nolan and Boyd were narrative artists too. I love the stories their works told: Australian myths, biblical myths and the Australian countryside. They both captured quintessentially Australian themes. I really admire their work ethic, their commitment to art making and their imagination. Their works still excite me after 30 years of looking at them.”

Blue Boy Larry
Blue Boy Larry (from Doggerel Dreams)

Doggerel Dreams is on at the Gallery on Sturt, Ballerat until 21 April. If you can’t make it and want to own a piece of iconic Australian art, her work is also available at Bluethumb.

Shop online.

— Freddy Grant is from Bluethumb, an online art gallery that makes buying and selling art easy. 

Facebook0Pin00Email0Tweet0

Primary Sidebar

Trending This Week

Visit Jen's profile on Pinterest.

Subscribe

Love interiors and renovating? Sign up for our bi-weekly emails featuring all the best bits! We'll also send you our free eBook:
How to Pull a Living Room Look Together

Real Renos

Rear extension

Melbourne heritage overlay makes for unique renovation solution

Navy weatherboard house: a crazy good before & after

Kitchen

Redfern terraces combined to create one light-filled home

Architect’s Victorian villa comes alive in colour

AFTER bathroom

Tired 40s house given colourful new lease on life by interior designer

Guest Poster

About Guest Poster

If you have high quality, original, relevant content to share, we might be interested in publishing your guest post on Interiors Addict. Please email [email protected] with your submissions.

More from Art

How to buy art online and some of the best places to…

Win a stunning photographic artwork in time for Christmas

Mosey Me: colourful textiles that combine playfulness and sophistication

Kylie Tyrell

Former Melbourne property stylist now styles homes for living

Bibi Ana + Co.’s new Contour Collection

Kip & Co. collaborate on female-led Indigenous homewares collection

Greek busts right at home in modern homes: meet Mercer & Lewis

Printing for Solidarity: grab bargain artworks for a cause

Abstract artist Jo Carroll: creating from nothing

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Promo Area

Subscribe to the Newsletter

We publish twice a day every weekday. Sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter with all the best bits! We'll also send you our free eBook:
How to Pull a Living Room Look Together.

Footer

Interiors Addict

Interiors Addict

  • About
  • Contact
  • Work with Jen
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Policy

Browse

  • RENO ADDICT
  • Jen’s Reno
  • House Tours
  • Real Renos
  • Interviews
  • Styling
  • Designers
  • Bedrooms
  • Covet My Coffee Table
  • Expert Tips
  • The Block
  • Art
  • Furniture
  • Recipes

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RENO ADDICT

Copyright © 2011–2021 Addicted Media Pty Ltd
Website care by ClickWP · Log in

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!