G. W. Bot

G. W. Bot is the signature name for the Australian artist Christine Grishin, nee Christine Falkland, who has been a full-time artist for more than 30 years. She is a printmaker, sculptor, painter and graphic artist who works with her own shapes and glyphs to represent the landscapes she loves. Since 1985 her primary work is linocut printing. She is known nationally and internationally from about 50 solo exhibitions, and more than 200 mixed, group exhibitions.

Bot lives in Canberra surrounded by gardens and views into bush land, which inspire the shapes and glyphs that define her work.

Like many female artists who have experienced motherhood, Bot felt isolation when the children were young. Her choice of linocuts facilitated working on a kitchen table, and she expanded her skills and scope of work during this domestic period.

Bot has stated: “Like the unexplored and unmapped Australian landscape, the linocut is an unchartered medium without codified orthodoxies. It can detail a preciousness and intricate fragility like the spikes of a banksia or a vast monotony of tone.”

She credits Aboriginal artist Rover Thomas with teaching her about black in the Australian landscape. After a fire, the black land bursts into bloom, so black is the colour not of death but of regeneration. “What would you most like people to know about your Arts practice?

"Art matters – art is a voice that reaches out to others so that they can see the world again as if for the first time. Like a child who sees the moon and is so overcome that they need to share the experience with others just in case we hadn’t ever seen the moon. In surreal times – like this COVID-19 pandemic – we all perhaps need to hear the voice of the child/artist for inspiration, for hope, for sanity and survival.“