Marianne Cara

Marianne’s Italian background influences her painting. Whilst she was born in Australia, she has travelled back to her parent’s homeland and nurtured her heritage. The second generation Italian artist paints portraits in the landscape that delicately blend Calabrian village scenes with backyard Australiana.

Her paintings of family and family life evoke powerful sensations of the different experiences and places that shape her mature artistic vision. She subtlety draws together aspects of her Italian and Australian heritage, the results being engaging and enigmatic.

Marianne’s paintings celebrate not only the extension of her Italian heritage but also the preservation of these much celebrated but almost dying traditions. A combination of old Italian family and childhood photographs, explore themes involving family connections, memory, identity and migration.

Marianne’s most recent paintings are from her visit to Italy in May 2008, where she painted the amazing mosaic landscapes of Umbria in Central Italy.