Hannah Bernadette

Hannah Bernadette is a self-taught visual artist based on Awabakal Country (Newcastle), whose practice explores the intimate relationship between body, emotion, and environment. Trained as a physiotherapist, her dual careers are united by a deep curiosity for the body – its sensations, memory, and the profound influence of the nervous system on perception and experience.

Bernadette’s background in physiotherapy – particularly her work with individuals navigating chronic pain has sharpened her sensitivity to the body’s silent language. Her painting practice has become both an extension of this knowledge and a form of somatic inquiry. It is a space for release, reflection, and reconnection; where intuition overrides control, and colour becomes a tool for translation.

Working primarily on heavy canvas with acrylics, oil paint, and oil pastels, she builds layered compositions through gestural mark-making and vivid contrasts. Each work pulses with energy, inviting the viewer to slow down, drop in, and attune to the body’s intelligence. Her work invites a return to vitality, to presence, and to the full spectrum of being alive