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        • Susan ANGWIN
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        • Phoebe DUFF
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        • Robyn LEES
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        • Margaret SANDERS
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    • Artists >
      • Artists A-G >
        • Susan ANGWIN
        • Kerrie ARGENT
        • Lynley CAMPBELL
        • Kate CAMPBELL-POPE
        • Ann COPEMAN
        • Jenny CRISP
        • Annette DAVIS
        • Samantha DENNISON
        • Kevin DRAPER
        • Renee FARRANT
        • Indra GEIDANS
        • Jillian GREEN
        • Nikki GREEN
        • Anne GROTIAN
      • Artists L-W >
        • Robyn LEES
        • Barbara MADDEN
        • Serena McLAUCHLAN
        • Rachel MORDY
        • Jill O'MEEHAN
        • Nat RAD
        • Elizabeth RILEY
        • Margaret SANDERS
        • Sheryl STEPHENS
        • Jo WASSELL
      • Catalogue essay
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      • Susan ANGWIN
      • Kerrie ARGENT
      • Lynley CAMPBELL
      • Kate CAMPBELL-POPE
      • Jenny CRISP
      • Annette DAVIS
      • Renee FARRANT
      • Nikki GREEN
      • Robyn LEES
      • Barbara MADDEN
      • Rachel MORDY
      • Jill O'MEEHAN
      • Nat RAD
      • Elizabeth R RILEY
      • Margaret SANDERS
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      • Artists and Artworks >
        • Kerrie ARGENT
        • Lynley CAMPBELL
        • Ann COPEMAN
        • Jenny CRISP
        • Peta DAVIES
        • Annette DAVIS
        • Renee FARRANT
        • Michelle FRANTOM
        • Indra GEIDANS
        • Jillian GREEN
        • Nikki GREEN
        • Robyn LEES
        • Rachel MORDY
        • Terri PIKORA
        • Nat RAD
        • Sheryl STEPHENS
      • Exhibition
      • Catalogue Essay
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  • Home
  • About
  • Immerse
    • Background
    • Artists >
      • ARTISTS A - G >
        • Susan ANGWIN
        • Kerrie ARGENT
        • Christine BAKER
        • Lynley CAMPBELL
        • Ann COPEMAN
        • Jenny CRISP
        • Annette DAVIS
        • Kevin DRAPER
        • Phoebe DUFF
        • Anne GROTIAN
      • ARTISTS H - W >
        • Catherine HIGHAM
        • Robyn LEES
        • Barbara MADDEN
        • Jill PAYNTER-O'MEEHAN
        • Terri PIKORA
        • Nat RAD
        • Elizabeth RILEY
        • Margaret SANDERS
        • Renee TAN
        • Jo WASSELL
    • Public Program
  • Refugium
    • Artists >
      • Artists A-H >
        • Susan ANGWIN
        • Kerrie ARGENT
        • Christine BAKER
        • Kate CAMPBELL-POPE
        • Ann COPEMAN
        • Jenny CRISP
        • Annette DAVIS
        • Phoebe DUFF
        • Nikki GREEN
        • Anne GROTIAN
        • Catherine HIGHAM
      • Artists L-W >
        • Robyn LEES
        • Barbara MADDEN
        • Rachel MORDY
        • Jill O'MEEHAN
        • Nat RAD
        • Elizabeth RILEY
        • Margaret SANDERS
        • Renee TAN
        • Jo WASSELL
    • Catalogue essay
    • Poetry by Yann Toussaint
    • Northcliffe
  • The Alternative Archive - MIX
    • Artists >
      • Artists A-G >
        • Susan ANGWIN
        • Kerrie ARGENT
        • Lynley CAMPBELL
        • Kate CAMPBELL-POPE
        • Ann COPEMAN
        • Jenny CRISP
        • Annette DAVIS
        • Samantha DENNISON
        • Kevin DRAPER
        • Renee FARRANT
        • Indra GEIDANS
        • Jillian GREEN
        • Nikki GREEN
        • Anne GROTIAN
      • Artists L-W >
        • Robyn LEES
        • Barbara MADDEN
        • Serena McLAUCHLAN
        • Rachel MORDY
        • Jill O'MEEHAN
        • Nat RAD
        • Elizabeth RILEY
        • Margaret SANDERS
        • Sheryl STEPHENS
        • Jo WASSELL
      • Catalogue essay
  • Reservoir
    • Artists and Artworks >
      • Susan ANGWIN
      • Kerrie ARGENT
      • Lynley CAMPBELL
      • Kate CAMPBELL-POPE
      • Jenny CRISP
      • Annette DAVIS
      • Renee FARRANT
      • Nikki GREEN
      • Robyn LEES
      • Barbara MADDEN
      • Rachel MORDY
      • Jill O'MEEHAN
      • Nat RAD
      • Elizabeth R RILEY
      • Margaret SANDERS
    • Catalogue Essay
    • Installation Views
  • SQUARE
  • HomeFRONT
    • About >
      • Artists and Artworks >
        • Kerrie ARGENT
        • Lynley CAMPBELL
        • Ann COPEMAN
        • Jenny CRISP
        • Peta DAVIES
        • Annette DAVIS
        • Renee FARRANT
        • Michelle FRANTOM
        • Indra GEIDANS
        • Jillian GREEN
        • Nikki GREEN
        • Robyn LEES
        • Rachel MORDY
        • Terri PIKORA
        • Nat RAD
        • Sheryl STEPHENS
      • Exhibition
      • Catalogue Essay
  • Hotspot
  • Catalogue essay
Picture
Picture
​ANN COPEMAN  
Enigma – anatomy of a barnacle
watercolour, ink on watercolour paper
76 x 56 cm
Price On Application
The marine environment is vast, enigmatic, and unfathomable from most vantage points.  My art research initially led me in a wide deep arc before casting me up on the tidal zone of our Southern Reef shoreline.  The Giant Rock Barnacle Austromegabalanus nigrescens, an inhabitant of this zone, became the ‘hero-ine’ of my artmaking.  I was fascinated by the link between barnacles and Charles Darwin - naturalist and early visitor to Albany - whose unwavering research into natural history culminated in his ground-breaking treatise The Origin of Species, which raised consciousness of the evolution of life on our planet. He spent eight long years immersed in barnacle anatomy, physiology, and ecology. 
Inspiration for my drawing of a barnacle came from a photo taken by my partner - a conservation biologist / nature photographer.  I chose to draw this work with pen, ink, and watercolours, using as reference a colour chart that Darwin himself used to describe specimens whilst working as a naturalist for five years, on the Sloop HMS Beagle, in the 1830s. What became important to me in making this artwork was the reminder that we are all connected; the naturalist, the colour chart maker, the artist, and the humble barnacle are all products of an evolutionary process that has been underway for eons.  The wonders of the natural world will always inspire the curiosity of artists and scientists.
 
REFERENCES
C R Darwin: The Origin of Species, 1859
F W Nicholas, J M Nicholas: Charles Darwin in Australia, 1989
R Carson:  The Sea around Us, 1951; Under the Sea-Wind, 1941; The Edge of the Sea, 1955
W J Dakin:  Australian Sea Shores, 1952
D Jones, G Morgan:  A Field Guide to Crustaceans of Australian Waters, 1994
P Syme:  Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours; Adapted for Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Minerology, Astronomy, and the Arts, 1821
Ernest Hodgkin and Anne Brearley:  Swanland: Estuaries and Coastal Lagoon of South-Western Australia, 2005, University of Western Australia Press.

BIO SUMMARY
Ann completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (BVA) at Edith Cowan University, Perth in 2006.  In 2011 after further studies, she was granted a Master of Visual Art (MVA) from Monash University, Melbourne.  She has participated in many exhibitions over the past two decades, as a member of MIX Artists Inc in Albany and of Butter Factory Studios in Denmark, WA.