Talking With Painters

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 her work as an artist many years later.   A figurative painter and a feminist, her work often parodies the Communist propaganda art which she would see in the streets in East Berlin - but instead of images of triumphant soldiers and workers, she would depict strong, defiant women using military imagery and female sexuality to brilliant effect.  She also paints larger-than-life head and shoulder paintings - from the intense portrayals of children going through tough times in her Forging of a Human Spirit series to her current incredible work focussing on female refugees which were lining the walls of her studio when I me

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 Sulman prizes you may have noticed that there was a Carment work shortlisted in every prize – a rare accomplishment for any artist. The winner of numerous art prizes including the Gallipoli, Mosman and NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Tom has been shortlisted in the Archibald 11 times and hung in the Salon des Refusés over 20 times. He has had over 25 solo shows and his work is held in public and private institutions in Australia and overseas. He’s also an acclaimed writer and his most recent book – ‘Womerah Lane: Lives and Landscapes’ - is a memorable collection of stories over the time he has lived in

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 study in New York and Sydney and has been painting for over 35 years. She has exhibited in over a dozen solo shows, many more group shows and has been shortlisted in art prizes on over 20 occasions. Primarily working in landscape en plein air, Baird's works reflect the beauty peculiar to this country with colour used expertly through years of experience – using brushes, palette knives and even squeegees to transport us into the dreamlike world she portrays. Her solo show ‘All Around Me’, which opens at Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne on 15 October 2019, centres around a place she’s been visiting for over 10 years

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 life has moved on. He has been painting for over 50 years and in 1968 was the youngest artist ever to win the Sulman prize at 19 years of age. He has since won the Sulman a second time and has been awarded the Archibald Prize, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and Archibald Packing Room Prize. His work is held in most Australian national and state art institutions and in private collections across the world. He has exhibited in dozens of solo shows including a stunning survey show in 2011 at S.H.Ervin Gallery, was a trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW for most of the 90s and has been awarded a member of the Order of Australia for

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 her November show with Arthouse Gallery in Sydney. We also filmed some video on that day which will be uploaded to the website soon. Nicole grew up in the Sutherland Shire in southern Sydney and now lives in Thirroul, south of Sydney.  She didn’t paint or draw much as a child and in fact was more interested in photography in high school and particularly the work of Bill Henson. After school, encouraged by photographer and academic Ella Dreyfus, she decided to apply for the National Art School. Press play beneath the feature photo above to hear us talk about her time at National Art School, in Paris and

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: 'Lindy Lee', (detail), oil on canvas, 182.5 x 152cm, Tony Costa, winner of Archibald prize 2019 Click on the artist's name below to go to their podcast episode and see the video. The time marking shows where the artist's work is mentioned in the episode and the number in brackets is the number of the work in the AGNSW. 1:25___ Jude Rae (41) 3:35___ Jonathan Dalton (14) 6:40___Prudence Flint (22) 9:38___Tony Costa (winner) (13) 13:05___Blak Douglas (18) 15:50___Paul Ryan (43) 18:13___Marc Etherington (20) 21.11___Loribelle Spirovski (44) 23:35___Laura Jones (27) 2

Here's your guide to the paintings of the seven podcast guests whose works were shortlisted in the 2019 Wynne prize. Go to episodes 72 and 74 for the Sulman and Archibald guides! Click the play button underneath the photo to hear the podcast episode and scroll down for video of the Wynne winner Sylvia Ken. Click here for an overview of how to use this guide Click here for images of the paintings in the Wynne prize Click here to see the Gallery Map if you are looking at this on your podcast app. https://youtu.be/n7FwTgsPOCY Artist Sylvia Ken talks with Maria Stoljar Gallery map of the AGNSW - Archibald, Wynne Sulman prizes exhibition Click on the artist's name below to go to their podcast episode and see the video The time marking shows where the artist's work is mentioned on the podcast and the number following the name is the number of the work in the AGNSW. 0:55___Marc Etherington (61) 3:08___Ken Done (63) 4:34___ Blak Douglas and Elaine Russell (62) 7:38____Natasha Bie

Here's your guide to the paintings of the six podcast guests whose works were shortlisted in the 2019 Sir John Sulman prize. Go to episodes 73 and 74 for the Wynne and Archibald guides! Click here for an overview of how to use this guide Click here to see the Sir John Sulman finalist paintings. Feature photo: 'The first girl that knocked on his door' (detail) oil on canvas, 153 x 122.5cm, McLean Edwards, winner of the Sir John Sulman prize, 2019. Click on the artist's name below to hear their podcast interview and see the podcast video. The time marking shows where the artist's work is mentioned on the podcast and the number following the name is the number of the work in the AGNSW. 1:12___John Bokor (84) 3:37___Paul Ryan (104) 6:10___Ken Done (87) 8:00___McLean Edwards (winner) (88) 10:38__Alan Jones (91) 13:19__Abdul Abdullah (81)

This year twenty podcast guests were selected as finalists in the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman prizes, which are exhibited every year at the Art Gallery of NSW, with a total of 26 paintings between them. In the next three episodes I'm going to talk to you about those works. Scroll down to see some tips on how to listen to these episodes. How to use episodes 72-74: As an audio guide at the Art Gallery of NSW (until 8 September 2019) or any gallery the exhibition travels to. scroll down for a map of the gallery rooms and list of finalists. (or click here if you're looking at this on your podcast app) There is a time marking for each painting so you can skip forward or back.To hear the complete podcast interview and view video of the artist click on the artist's name in the list below.Tips - download the podcast episodes onto your phone before you go (in case the wi-fi's not great) and take a screenshot of the map! Listen while you look at the paintings online on the gallery's websiteclick here for the

Tony Costa says winning the Archibald makes the invisible artist visible but you wouldn’t have called him invisible before he won the prize this year.  He’s been painting for over 50 years, and in addition to the Archibald has won several other awards including the Paddington Art Prize for landscape painting and has been shortlisted in others including another three times in the Archibald, in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the Wynne Prize, the Sulman Prize, the Kilgour Prize, and the list goes on. Costa paints in an expressionist style. His whole practice is about trapping energy and a large part of his method is guided by an eastern philosophy - seeking to enter into the world of nothingness and distancing himself from any thought process. This process is applied whether it's a landscape or a portrait. His methods are neither traditional nor predictable and I found our conversation incredibly interesting and eye opening with a good dose of humour thrown in. This podcast interview was re

Neil Frazer is a landscape painter but don't expect pictures of rolling hills or calming seascapes. His powerful work depicts the harsh and dangerous environments in our world, where the sea smashes against jagged rocks and freezing glaciers slide past uninhabitable snowy peaks.  It’s the physicality and energy of these places that he’s aiming to convey and he does so spectacularly. He combines an impasto technique with layering and glazing to produce a complex visual experience and his compositions often involve intriguing negative spaces which contribute to the drama and mystery of his work. He has exhibited in dozens of solo shows in Australia and New Zealand and his latest solo show, Liquid Light, opens at Martin Browne Contemporary in Sydney on 30 May 2019. Although he grew up in New Zealand, he has spent half his life in Australia where he completed his Masters degree after previous postgraduate study in New York. In this episode you'll hear about how and why his work moved from abst

Blak Douglas is well known for his brightly coloured landscapes with their trademark seven-tiered sky but he’s also an accomplished portraitist. At the time of writing, his work hangs in the Art Gallery of NSW in both the Archibald and Wynne prizes which are arguably the most famous portrait and landscape awards in Australia. His paintings always have something to say about social justice, often with irony and humour playing an important part and with his Aboriginal identity central to his work.  He’s won several awards and has been finalist in many others including three times in the Archibald prize and his work is held in various public collections including the National Gallery of Australia. His grandmother, Clorine Morthem,  was one of the stolen generation, taken at 13 years of age and institutionalised in Cootamundra Girls home, something that has had repercussions down the generations.  His father’s ancestors are the Dunghutti people from northern NSW and his mother was from an Irish

Del Kathryn Barton is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in Australian art today. Her work is hotly sought after internationally and, in Australia, she is probably best known for the rare achievement of having won the Archibald prize twice - no mean feat in a race where women have only won the award 12 times in close to 100 years. Her paintings are instantly recognizable. Figures with drawn hands and faces look out of the picture with mesmerising eyes, existing in an imaginary world. That world is filled with colour and exquisite detail. Barton has exhibited in over 20 solo shows including a 4-month major survey of her work at the National Gallery of Victoria last year and her work is held in many public institutions and private collections. However,  painting forms only part of her life’s work and, although we also talked about her film-making, we didn't touch on her photo montages, sculptures and installations and her current New York show 'sing blood-wings sing'  which includes a 10m long work in 5 pa

Through her art, Kiata Mason takes us into her world and her way of seeing. Her still lifes are filled with the objects from her home, collected over generations, and portraits contain reminders of the past. She plays with colour and perspective to convey her subjects not quite the way they exist in reality but with an ever present optimism and empathy mixed with a bit of kookiness. She has a Masters degree in drawing from the National Art School and this forms the foundations of her painting. Last year she won the Muswellbrook Art prize for works on paper and she’s also been a finalist and semi-finalist in many major painting prizes including the Sulman, Doug Moran, Black Swan and Paddington art prizes. She has exhibited in five solo shows and has another two coming up this year but still sees herself in the early stages of her career as a painter. Her work crosses still life, portraiture and landscape. I recorded this episode in Kiata's studio in the back room of her home in Lake Cathie just south of Port

Nicholas Harding is one of Australia's most celebrated artists. He has been awarded the Archibald prize, the Archibald People's Choice award, the Kilgour prize and the Dobell drawing prize amongst others. His work crosses portraiture, landscape and still life. Harding's oil paintings are created with a glorious impasto technique, he uses gouache to capture the lifesize portraits of many a famous sitter and he is renowned for his magnificent ink drawings. He has had over 30 (often sell-out) solo shows, major survey shows of his work have been held at the S H Ervin Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery and his work is in the collections of many public institutions including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, and in private and corporate collections around the world. One of the major impacts on his work was coming to Australia after spending the first 8 years of his life in England and, in particular, his observation of the different light

If you've ever met Luke Sciberras you’ll know he’s larger than life. Full of joie de vivre and good humour, he attacks life with gusto from his fabulous garden to his renowned cooking skills so it’s no surprise that this life force is also manifested through his art. He's known chiefly for his landscape paintings which are created with layers of glorious colour and a variety of marks. His drawings and plein air works have an immediacy which take us into his experience - whether it's a boab tree a bird or a portrait. His art is always interpreted from life or from drawings made en plein air and brought back into the studio. But paradoxically what is most important to him as a landscape painter is in fact people. Those who are the custodians or owners of the landscape are just as important to him as the landscape itself and he needs to connect with them in order to create his work. He’s painted landscapes around the world from Europe to China but it’s in Australia that he’s spent most of his painting life – i

In episode 62 I spoke with senior curator Denise Mimmocchi about the late abstract expressionist artist Tony Tuckson and the exhibition ' Tuckson:the abstract sublime ' which is currently showing at the Art Gallery of NSW. The exhibition continues until 17 February 2019. In this episode I look at a few of the paintings themselves with artist Aida Tomescu.  I spoke with Aida about her own life and art in episode 33 where you can hear a great story of her arrival in Australia from communist Romania and her rise to becoming one of our most respected painters. She has won many awards including the Wynne prize, the Sulman prize and the Dobell prize and has exhibited in over 30 solo shows. We talk about the paintings, paint, what the paint’s doing, guessing the intention of the artist and ponder on what effect it’s having on the viewer. You don’t have to see the exhibition to appreciate these episodes but if you get a chance to go why not listen to it as you’re walking around? You’ll see I’ve marked at the top of

Denise Mimmocchi, senior curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW, has brought together a magnificent exhibition of the abstract works of the late Tony Tuckson: 'Tuckson: the abstract sublime' showing at the Art Gallery of NSW until 17 February 2019. Tony Tuckson, who died about 45 years ago, is considered by many to be one of Australia’s most significant abstract expressionist artists but he kept his art under wraps for most of his painting life. In this episode I spoke with the Art Gallery of NSW’s senior curator of Australian art (and mastermind of this show) Denise Mimmocchi and we talk about his life and career. You can then follow on in episode 63 and listen to my conversation with renowned Australian abstract artist Aida Tomescu where we talk about a few of the works in depth. If you happen to be in Sydney before the show ends and get a chance to get there you could listen while you look. You’ll see in the notes to episode 63 that I’ve marked the point where we speak about each work so yo

From the age of 2, when she sailed with her parents from Australia to Canada, Michaye Boulter's life has never been far from the sea. Spending weeks at a time in her childhood sailing  on the ocean spending time staring out at that vastness, Michaye’s very being is connected with the water. So it’s no surprise that she paints what she knows. In her recent show, ‘Shelter’, at Sydney’s Arthouse Gallery, her works of Tasmanian seascapes were breathtaking. They depict the Australian coastlines and ocean often with no sign of human life when the sun is not out in full force, creating a low light which darkens the land making the sky and the water the main players in her work. We talk about her childhood memories but also about her current work and studio practice. Notably she's been a finalist in the prestigious Glover landscape prize 7 times as well as many others. She's had 20 solo shows and her work is also held in various public and private collections around Australia, including the Tasmanian Museum and Art G

Press 'play' above to hear the podcast episode and click here or scroll down for YouTube video! Over the last six years Justin Williams has not only been exhibiting all over Australia but in Europe and the US, with his work hanging in galleries in New York, L.A, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Athens and London. Williams depicts the world outside the mainstream, usually set in nature or a seemingly imaginary or folkloric world.  He's interested in the characters who represent the archetypal outsider such as Baba Desi, the wizard living in the Dandenongs and 'The Family' cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne. He feels, though, that not all outsiders live on the fringes of society and that it could include all of us to some extent. From working on fishing trawlers to single handedly building his own cabin in the forest, Williams does not seek out the safety of the comfortable life and it's only been relatively recently that he has found a stability of sorts in comparison to his earlier, less predictable, life. His cu