Madeleine Cruise is an Australian artist who shares her fierce appetite for the sensuality of life through a bold painterly language. Madeleine graduated with honours from the National Art School...
'Girl in a Red Fascinator' references a woman, a song and a landscape but most of all a time of discovery. It was painted in Montreal at the conclusion of a journey across Canada and is both structurally and emotionally charged. The broad gestures represent the sublime experience of Canada's expansive landscape. There is an unveiling of line and reduction of form and colour that represents an emotional rawness and humility in nature. The title takes it beyond an abstract composition and into the world of narrative, where red is given the identity of a tulle hat, that sat upon on the head of singer in a bar. As she sang the words of a journey, that wove in and out of love, she became the protagonist of this painting.