Arna Baartz. In her Studio.

Arna Baartz. In her Studio

I met Arna in Murwullumbah when she was still in school, and I was sleeping on the floor of a friends apartment.

We didn’t know each other well, but I was pregnant, and I heard she was too. We were at a mutual party and I made her some toast. I found her and said, ‘Here, you should eat something, you’re having a baby.’ 

From that moment on we’ve been friends. Our babies were born, Arna had twins and I had my first girl. Arna had six more children and I had one more daughter. 

We’ve talked our way through babies, husbands, divorce, boyfriends, love, disappointments, highs and lows. 

Our longest running conversation has been about our personal development and our art. Who are we? What do we want? How do we get it? We’ve experienced passion, frustration, tears, blocks and joys over the years. We’ve built up our seperate and different practises pursuing something tangible and intangible but something we love.

Arna lives near Mount Wollumbin, and has an art studio in M-Artz. I live in the burbs of Brisbane with a home based studio.

In 2024 I asked Arna if she would let me paint her and she was enthusiastic, she gave me full permission to ‘Do what you want.’ I did some sketches and took some photos. But every time I pointed the camera at her she turned away and said, ‘Don’t look at me.’ 

I’ve got a hundred photos of her hair covering her face. 

But I persevered. I took photos of her in a sheet, in the library, in Margaret Olley’s gallery, and finally in her art studio.  I painted my way through several scenarios and then she looked my way.

I came to this composition because it represents Arna’s confidence and vulnerability. She’s wearing the black belt hapkido pants that she spent a decade earning. In her art studio are several paintings that represent her intentions. Arna explores love, passion, lust, birth, babies, men, women and the merging of spirits. Her goals are to simplify with abstract expressionism and symbolism. 

Usually I tell Arna every day about the painting I’m working on, but with this one, I said nothing. I didn’t want to be influenced or ask for her approval. I wanted this painting to be intimate with me, to speak to me, and tell me what to do. 

As I was painting the door, I saw fire. I decided to go with my brush and painted flames into her hair with embers flickering on her skin. A few days later she messaged me about a meditation where she saw herself being burned as a witch in Scotland in the 1800s. 

And then I saw it. All of our conversations about repression were being revealed.

Arna went to Europe a few weeks before I finished her painting. 

I packed up my painting to drive to Sydney to enter it into the Archibald. My hubby and I  took two of our grandkids and our dog on the road trip. We spent the first night at my sisters in Coffs Harbour, the next day on a friends yacht (the boys loved it) and then Annandale. My painting was unpacked from the back of the truck where she stood in the lounge room for a few days until we were ready to go to the gallery.  It just so happened that the day we went to the packing room it was pouring with rain. The wet dog, two boys, my husband, myself and a painting wrapped in blankets on the tray of the Ute. 

We pulled her out and took her into the packing room. One of the lovely staff members, Mariam Slewo, took a photo for me. 

I said goodbye to my painting and got back in the truck for the drive to Brisbane. 

We’ve come so far, my friend and I. Friends for almost 4 decades. It is definitely the journey that matters most of all. 

@monicabatiste_artist
@arna_baartz_contemporary 

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