Home is where the art is

JENNI Mitchell has always loved desert landscapes – in fact, her relationship with fellow artist Mervyn Hannan bloomed when the pair were in the Flinders Ranges 17 years ago.

It seemed only fitting that, when the pair hosted famed Mongolian artist Togsoyun Sodom for two months in 2005, they took her out to the desert to paint.

“On the journey [to the Flinders Ranges], she would comment on the similarity of the landscapes. She felt very at home,” she says.

The trio returned to Mitchell’s studio and painted desert landscapes side by side for days, listening to Mongolian music. “We had a lovely time together,’’ Mitchell says. As an artist, I’m often very much a loner, but I found it very easy to work with her.”

Mitchell and Hannan organised an exhibition of their combined work called Desert Sharing. “At the time, we vowed to go to Mongolia and do the same thing – travel through her countryside and have an exhibition in Mongolia.”

In 2010, the couple fulfilled their promise. Together with Sodom, they travelled to Khenti, a remote desert near the Siberian border.

Mitchell says she was captured by how “pristine and beautiful” the wild country was, ‘‘a place without roads or fences, just endless hills and valleys vast enough to make our outback look small’’.

During their trip, Mitchell and Hannan were invited to exhibit with the national museum in Mongolia – the first Australian artists to do so. In May, they will again visit Mongolia to see their new exhibition of desert landscapes.

Despite her penchant for exotic travel, Mitchell has lived in Eltham all her life, and was born on the same land she still inhabits. “I think I’ll spend my life here. I couldn’t imagine having to move.”

Her parents moved to the area in 1948. Her mother’s pastry shop was famous for its pies, pastries and wedding cakes, with most of the ingredients coming from the orchard garden on the property, which Mitchell and Hannan still care for.

Mitchell’s love of art was sparked by growing up in Eltham’s creative enclave. Famous Melbourne artists and musicians often frequented the family’s shop. Later, her mother started sculpting and enrolled in art school at the age of 67. “It was a creative world. I grew up believing everyone was an artist,” she says.

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