Talking With Painters

Paul Ryan has had a huge year – 3 solo shows across Australia with Nanda Hobbs, Edwina Corlette and James Makin galleries as well as work being shown with all three at Sydney Contemporary. He has exhibited his work in over 20 solo shows. He’s won numerous art prizes and has been shortlisted many times – 13 times in the Archibald Prize - and on two occasions he achieved the rare distinction of being a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes in the Art Gallery of NSW in the one year. His work is characterised by the liberal application of paint, mainly with a palette knife, producing stunning portraits, figures and landscapes. Ryan lives and works in Thirroul, a coastal oasis south of Sydney, where his paintings share space with his surfboards. It's this landscape, with the backdrop of a dramatic escarpment, that Paul paints time and time again, often through the lens of Australian colonial history which has been inspired by literature and music. This subject has not been without controversy, howe