Current Featured Artists

 Jennifer McDuff - Off the Shelf

Jennifer McDuff was born in Childers, Qld, in 1949 and was educated locally before training as a secondary school art teacher at Queensland Teachers’ College, Brisbane.

Jennifer began her teaching life in Childers in 1970, and continued working in Childers and Bundaberg state and private schools throughout her career until retiring in 1995.  She later enjoyed part-time lecturing at Central Queensland University’s Bundaberg Campus in the Art Education curriculum for primary school teachers.

In 1971, her solo exhibition began with The Gallery Up Top, then run by Lal Lanyon.  Later solo shows moved through to Bundaberg at Coralie Busby’s Allamanda Gallery, the Andrew Vincent Gallery Brisbane, Childers, Gladstone, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Cairns, Sydney, The University of Tasmania, Launceston and more recently Kitakyushu and Oita, Japan.

Although the work now has a still life basis, her genre is broad.  It extends from large landscapes on paper and canvas to intimate etchings on paper.  Her breadth of field includes ceramic tile murals, her most recent installed at Shalom Catholic College, as well as Bundaberg State High School, Kepnock State High School, Gladstone Regional Gallery; and a community streetscape in Childers in 2005 where her mosaics are in the main street.

The discipline of which she is most proud is a 1992 exhibition which dealt with the Vietnam War. The 22 works on paper were created using a computer-generated etching method.  The series was purchased in its entirety by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.  It depicts her husband, Barry, a national serviceman who saw active service in Vietnam, in 1969 with 11 Platoon, D Company, 6RAR.  The effect of this war on him, Jennifer and their children, Rebecca and Catherine, was personal. 

The broader viewpoint which Jennifer wanted to represent was the “everyman” through their universal symbol of the DogTag, worn around soldiers’ necks.  This work was included in the National Exhibition of Dog Tags, curated by Peter Daly.  This exhibition not only gave her artistic career an unexpected exposure but also a voice to speak to veterans, their wives, partners and families at the request of the Australian War Memorial.

Jennifer’s work continues to evolve from a very personal level where she observes her environment and is stimulated by chance and circumstance with the material and process paramount to her creativity.