Dayle Bolton’s splendidly costumed circus characters are juxtaposed against minimalist backdrops. The viewer is immersed in a poignant and nostalgic sensory experience, such as a tender moment between a circus bear and girl, which is captured with gothic references to a bygone era. Complexities of the human condition are satirically captured on canvas, hinting at darker themes of isolation and loss. One might encounter, through Bolton’s classical settings, the solitary moment of a performer behind the curtain stage, or a juggler in full flight, on a wind-swept beach.
After graduating from RMIT in 1972 and winning The Myer Award for Illustration, Dayle Bolton worked as a freelance illustrator for major national and International retailers and magazines. Notably in London in the 1970’s her illustrations in Vogue featured as full-page advertisements in the press, many of which were later sold as limited edition prints. Back in Australia the artist was selected as a finalist in the Alice Bale Portraiture Prize in 1992. Bolton’s work embodies the maturity of her experience in alternate design fields. The theatrically composed works transport us on a journey to explore the profane, and to witness a mythology that is, at once, familiar and strange. Probing and haunting, the carnival of characters tempts the viewer to peep into a voyeuristic world.
