Born in Lithuania in 1943, Rene Blin, of the Blinstrubas family, arrived in Australia via Germany in November 1948, an immigrant from post-war Europe. The family settled in suburban Melbourne.
Blin was educated in both primary and secondary Catholic systems, first in Bentleigh, then briefly at a Ballarat boarding school. A teaching bursary eventually allowed her to study further via a studentship to attend two years at Caulfield Technical College/Melbourne Teachers College and RMIT in third year, to potentially gain a Certificate of Teaching, Secondary Art and Crafts.
Despite the newly devised creative course, with artist/teachers like Anita Aarons, Warwick Armstrong, Marcus Clarke and Stuart Devlin, Blin did not attain certification at that point. However, she was found positions as an art teacher at Strathfield, Camperdown, Kerang and Hampton High to satisfy the obligations to Victorian Education Department three-year 'bond’ system.
At completion of her obligation, Blin joined the exodus towards the Northern Hemisphere in the late 1960s. After four years of self-indulgent living, cultural pursuits, gallery hopping and taking menial jobs in foreign parts, a parent’s illness necessitated her return to Australia to become a primary carer.
When Blin returned to her studies and attained the necessary certification and registration to teach, she gained a position in the art department at Parkdale High School. Then in 1972 the election of the Whitlam Labour Government, with its commitment to lifting education standards, facilitated Blin’s return to further studies at Melbourne State College. Study-leave afforded a blossoming of interest in learning, which in turn nurtured her thirst 'to do’ and 'make’, which then superceded teaching as a 'raison d’etre’.
In 1977-78 Blin began investigating primitive firing techniques and went on to research at primary sources throughout Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Guatemala. On return to Australia she transposed the Super 8 film documentation of her research to U-matic format (these are now in the Media Studies Faculty of Melbourne University Library). At this time she was offered, and took, an eight-month artist residency at Melbourne State College.
Due to the fragility of the physical environment in Victoria with its propensity to easily be set aflame, in 1979 Blin relocated to Yandina, Queensland. The more humid and lush vegetation and environment affording a more conducive atmosphere to the open firing techniques of Mexican blackware, pit and open stack firing methods. It was here that Blin’s career as a professional sculptor began.
It was also in 1979 that Blin became reacquainted with Anita Aarons and met her husband, Merton Chambers, (himself a renowned artist who was selected as inaugural Director of what became Noosa Regional Gallery). This association offered friendship and mentoring. Further, Blin felt this was a time of creative ferment for artists living in and around southeast Queensland.
When the Queensland Arts Council began an outreach programme to send tutors to communities requesting help to refine skills, Blin was often sought to conduct such weekend workshops. Registration to 'relief teach’ and 'contract teach’ also helped to keep her financially solvent.
At this time, Blin’s artistic concerns changed and she took her imagery, methodology and technique in a new direction. She began creating larger images and could no longer use clay as a medium. The developing attenuated forms demanded the new technique of working ferro-cement over a steel armature. In 1992 Blin took a research trip to the USA to consolidate her understanding of this technique. Blin gained a Premier’s Grant of $10,000 in 1993 and set to work on new sculptures. Her works of this time were exhibited in galleries, foyers and open-air sites. At Gladstone Botanic Gardens her works came under attack and many were broken.
When Blin became primary carer to her remaining parent – her mother was suffering from Alzheimer Disease – it inevitably led to a slowing of her artistic output. Further, a period of recession and a series of debilitating physical ailments led to a further change of direction and habitat for Blin at the death of her mother. She relocated to Brisbane and returned to clay as a simple medium in an attempt to keep her skills active by making slab platters and bowls which, though challenging and physically satisfying, proved an unsuccessful venture.
Again a move to the Central Coast of NSW awakened new interests, she worked as a volunteer to propagate indigenous native plants and re-vegetate of coastal dunes.
In 1999 she returned to Victoria and settled in Bairnsdale and to other creative endeavors. At the University of the Third Age (commonly referred to as U3A) Blin began working with digital photography as an instrument of creativity and documentation. Here she also contributed as a facilitator of life drawing sessions.
In short, the most fertile and productive period of creativity for Blin was the thirteen years spent amongst the ferment generated in South East Queensland in the loose comradely company of such artists as Lyndel Milani, Judith Wright, Pat Fearnley, James Fearnley, Barry Tutt, Penny Steele, Lester Clift and Peter Harris among others.
Blin has exhibited in regional and commercial galleries, written articles on artists and galleries, curated exhibitions and acted on various arts committees. Blin has twice been awarded a Pat Corrigan Artist Grant (1990 and 1996), and in 1993 she was awarded a project grant by the Arts Division of the Queensland State Government. Her work is held in the collection of the Fairhill Nursery Gallery, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Crafts Council of Australia Resource Centre.
- Writers:
- Rene Blin
- Date written:
- 2011
- Last updated:
- 2011
