Colleen Guiney

Colleen Guiney is an emerging artist living in the south-west coast of Victoria. She has exhibited widely including recent shows at Boom Gallery, Geelong (2017/18/20/21). Career highlights include solo exhibitions at Pigment Gallery in the Nicholas Building (2009) and First Site Gallery, RMIT (2009). Colleen was recently a finalist in the Lethbridge Landscape Art Prize (2021) and has been featured in The Artist Issue of Country Style Magazine (2019).  She has also been a finalist in the Lethbridge, Williamstown and Waverley Art Prize.

Colleen lives in Port Fairy, and with her partner operates Drift House, an award-winning boutique hotel known for its design aesthetic. Her work is woven into the design, including two feature murals in the establishment.

Colleen’s paintings represent the physical act of painting and the inner calmness that occurs when she paints. In the making of her paintings, she expresses something that is felt rather than observed and has developed a methodology through layers of texture, colour and intuitive marks and shapes that reference the natural landscape around her. Colour is the most important element of her work and getting it right is key to knowing when a painting is working, or when it is finished. Nature is the ultimate inspiration for the work, and what is left on the canvas reflects how Colleen experiences it through her own interior landscape.

I play with aspects of abstraction and landscape and explore personal themes that reflect my world. A deliberate and respectful connection to nature is pivotal to the work, and the story follows; reflections of my relationship with the outside world as I search for loveliness and connection at a deeper level.