Talking with Painters

In the late 19th century, impressionism swept through the art world. In Australia, a group of young artists embraced the new movement – they would meet in artist’s camps and paint en plein air. Among them was a young Arthur Streeton who would in due course become one of Australia’s most loved and respected artists.   Wayne Tunnicliffe has curated an outstanding retrospective of S...

After months of disruption and pessimism wreaked by the global pandemic, seeing Jude Rae’s exhibition ‘424-428’ at The Commercial in Sydney was as uplifting as the paintings themselves. The towering concrete walls of the gallery would ordinarily overpower an exhibition of five paintings but the exquisite works easily took command of the space. Viewing the exhibition will be an ex...

Reading Scott Bevan’s biography of 20th century artist William Dobell is like viewing one of Dobell’s portraits; Scott takes us behind the exterior of the subject and into their inner life. He just uses words instead of paint. Scott is a journalist, TV and radio presenter, musician and biographer. In this podcast interview, I talk with him about the life of Dobell in the context of the changi...

Creating her work through intuition, Louisa Chircop takes us into another world – the world of her subconscious. Dreamlike landscapes containing disembodied limbs, headless figures and mysterious forms – some representational others more abstract – create a surrealist atmosphere which draws the viewer closer to see what the artist has unearthed and portraits take on an extra laye...

William Mackinnon is a previous podcast guest . In this episode we talk about his show with Hugo Michell Gallery, ‘Learning to love the wind’ coming up in a few weeks. We also talk about his life in Ibiza, Spain, where he lives with his wife and young son, and how this body of work has developed in these times of change, both global and personal. You can hear more about William’s...

Belinda Fox’s work is extraordinary. Whether it’s an intricate bird in mid-flight or abstract geometric forms, she combines paint, printmaking, drawing, wax and collage to produce works of great detail and beauty. When she was only in her twenties Belinda became a master printer at Port Jackson Press, collaborating with leading Australian artists. It wasn’t long before she decided to b...

Tim Maguire is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, acclaimed internationally for his astonishing large scale paintings.  From afar, they are familiar subjects; flowers in a tight composition, translucent grapes, an inquiring snail. But up close, multiple layers of transparent paint and a fascinating combination of large brushstrokes and expressive splashes transport the view...

Colin Pennock’s work could be described as landscape painting but it certainly doesn’t fall into that category in any traditional sense.  Although there’s almost always a horizon line, or the remnants of one,  he throws the traditional ideas of sky, land and sea into ambiguity. The glorious pieces of impasto paint which are so distinctive in his work provide a fragmented way...

A true plein air painter, Emily Imeson has spent the last two years living a nomadic lifestyle travelling around Australia with her partner in their beloved Troopy 4WD.   For much of that time Emily’s studio has been the Australian outback. Whether she’s using the side of the car as an easel or working flat on the ground of the Australian desert, she is engulfed by her surroundings...

There’s no mistaking a Lucas Grogan work. Whether it’s a mural, an ink drawing or an intricate quilt, his detailed monochromatic patterns are unique and his carefully chosen lines of text are loaded with meaning and humour. Although he’s only in his 30s, he’s exhibited in over 20 solo shows and has been working as a full time artist since 2012.  His work is held in nu...

Since episode 87 the world has changed. Those huge changes to our whole society and way of life, brought about by the threat of COVID-19, have coincided with the opening of Peter O’Doherty’s show at King Street Gallery on William, prophetically called ‘The distance between us’. I was planning to film a short video at the opening, asking Peter about his show, but this instea...

Davida Allen and William Robinson, two of Australia’s leading painters, are not only both Archibald winners and Queenslanders but have been friends for over 40 years. Although they share their thoughts about the art world and their work, their painting styles and personalities are very different – which might be part of the secret to their long friendship. Davida’s current show w...

Few other artists have captured Australia’s imagination quite like Ian Fairweather. This is the second part of a double episode on this 20 th century artist. In the last episode I interviewed Claire Roberts, co -editor of the book ‘Ian Fairweather A Life in Letters’ and we talked about the events of Fairweather’s life from his early childhood.  In this episode I talk with An...

Learning about someone through their letters is a fascinating exercise and this is precisely what Claire Roberts set out to do when she amassed over 700 letters of the celebrated 20th century artist Ian Fairweather. Together with cultural historian John Thompson, Roberts has produced a brilliant book ‘Ian Fairweather A Life in Letters’ which not only gives us an insight into Fairweathe...

Stepping into David Griggs’ Sydney studio in the lead up to his show at Roslyn Oxley9 gallery was a sensory experience. The scale of his paintings is large and the colour is bold. The word ‘psychedelic’ has been used more than once in describing his work and it certainly applies to his show about to hit the Sydney art scene. It’s fabulously called Mankini Island. David’s a p...

Driving to Philip Wolfhagen’s home outside Launceston, Tasmania, was a dreamlike experience. Unlike the dry landscape of drought-affected NSW (we recorded before the onset of the bushfire crisis), there were green farmlands rolling down to a plain with hills in the distance. If it had been dusk I would have felt I was driving through a Wolfhagen painting because capturing the landscape surro...

Looking back at the artists of 2019! Listen to this podcast episode for highlights of my conversations with the amazing Australian painters listed below. Click on the artist’s name to hear the full interview – and most have a video on their page too! Luke Sciberras Nicholas Harding Kiata Mason Del Kathryn Barton Blak Douglas Neil Frazer Tony Costa Nicole Kelly Tim Storrier Susan Baird...

This is not the first time curator Lisa Slade has brought the paintings of Ben Quilty to viewers in Australia, but of those previous exhibitions none has had the depth and breadth of the survey show ‘Quilty’ which has arrived at the Art Gallery of NSW. Distilling fifteen years of creative energy, Slade has brought together an exhibition which not only presents these works to the viewer in a compel...

If you are interested in the arts in Australia you will know of Ben Quilty. He is one of the country’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. In the last 15 years he has shot to prominence not just as an artist – although he’s won the Archibald Prize, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship – but as an observer and commentator on social...

During the Cold War, the Soviet Bloc and the West were separated in various ways but probably none so dramatically as the Berlin Wall. Erected in 1961, it separated East and West Germans for 28 years.   Kathrin Longhurst was born on the eastern side of that wall and experienced, first-hand, what life was like behind the Iron Curtain. It was a life that would influence the direction of he...

Tom Carment has been painting and writing for over 45 years but it was in his mid twenties that he decided his work would be created solely from life. Changing light and weather conditions, sitter fatigue and repeated packing of materials became daily concerns. His work crosses landscape, portraiture and still life and if you visited the Art Gallery of NSW in 2019 for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulm...

As a child, it never occurred to Susan Baird that she might one day be a painter. She left school at 16 and, after a year of study, found a job working for a graphic designer who also enjoyed painting. It was through seeing him paint that the course of her life shifted entirely. By the age of 18 she’d exhibited in her first solo show in Sydney’s premier art district. She went on to stu...

Tim Storrier’s work sweeps you into his imagination: burning ropes in the desert, clothes wrapped around a torso-shaped void, mood-filled skies with clouds that go on forever. One of Australia’s premier artists, his paintings often take the form of a memento mori – a reminder of our mortality – with detritus strewn across the landscape to remind us of what is left after lif...

Nicole Kelly is one of Australia’s most interesting emerging artists. Her landscapes and portraits are filled with reminiscence and emotion. She’s had 10 solo shows, has won the coveted Brett Whiteley travelling art scholarship, Hurford Hardwood portrait prize, as well as other prizes, and has been finalist in many others. I spoke with her in her studio in Sydney where she was creating work for he...

Here’s your guide to the paintings of the 13 podcast guests whose works were shortlisted in the 2019 Archibald prize. Go to episodes 72 and 73 for the Wynne and Sulman guides! Click here for an overview of how to use this guide Click here for images of the Archibald Prize finalists Click here to see the gallery map below if you are looking at this on your podcast app. Feature Photo: ‘L...