“I am a painter inspired by natural landscapes of significant heritage value. My paintings celebrate the colours, shapes and textures of the Australian bush and the particular visual language of specific places.

I draw ‘in plein air’ using pencil, watercolour and pastels and move to acrylic paint back in the studio where I work on canvas and board. I use a combination of layering and a light touch to recreate memories through personal responses to places I have been.

Time and the River is a body of work made in response to drawings and memories from three art camps along and around the Murray River during 2023.  The mountainous region of the Upper Murray, the semi desert area of Balranald in the far west of NSW and the semi-arid country around Thule Lagoon, an ancient course of the Murray River between Deniliquin and Barham.”

Where I Like to Stand is the first solo presentation of an exciting young painter, Erin Murphy, who was one of the star discoveries at last year’s National Emerging Art Prize.

“I will trawl through books at my university library or op shops trying to find pictures to work with,” says Murphy, whose references range from scientific tomes such as Mammals of the World and Flowers of Australia to popular cartoons, commercial branding and 17th-century art.

A graduate of the National Art School who is currently completing a Master of Fine Art, Murphy breathes contemporary life into her source material with her spirited paintings, adding a dash of playful whimsy, warm-hearted parody and storybook charm while working with traditional materials and old-fashioned canvas-making methods to form her delightfully nostalgic, quietly theatrical pieces.

Where I Like to Stand began with Murphy’s interest in Rococo images of domestic animals – “an odd genre where the living world was depicted in the most fun and cartoonish way,” she says. “It’s hard to tell if the painters intended, hundreds of years ago, for the works to be taken very seriously or if they wanted the viewer to laugh.”

Channelling these comic qualities, the artist says she wanted her new paintings “to feel like scenes from a lighthearted story, a fiction from a very happy-go-lucky sort of world”.

This collection of work delves into the intricate psychology of memory, exploring how we construct narratives from fragmented recollections. Memories, often replayed unconsciously, can shape our understanding of self and reality, blurring the lines between truth and interpretation. Through this collection, I challenge the notion of unquestioned memories and the stories we repeatedly replay in our minds.

To visualise this, I drew on imagery from interior design, architecture and fashion as reflections of the way we present ourselves to the world. This imagery was cut up, reconstructed and abstracted, representing the layers of manipulated memories that we construct and unconsciously live by.

In terms of technique, I employ drawing and acrylic under-painting as a foundational layer, adding depth, texture and form, and then layer oil pigment sticks and oil pastels to introduce a dynamic interplay of colour and materiality. This deliberate juxtaposition of complementary colours and varied mediums, symbolises the complexity and sometimes conflicting realities within our memories. The vibrant hues serve as a visual catalyst, highlighting the subconscious narratives we weave, often without conscious awareness.

Through this artistic exploration, I aim to illuminate the nuanced layers of human memory, inviting viewers to reconsider their own ‘interior’ and the inherent subjectivity of personal history.

Angela Chauvin is an artist living and working in Melbourne, Victoria. She is currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology where she recieved her Bachelors of Fine Arts as well as completeing her Honours degree from the Victorian Collage of Arts, Melbourne University. In 2019 and again in 2023, Angela exhibited Solo Shows at Stockroom Kyneton, Victoria.

“Within her familiar-but-strange still life paintings, Angela Chauvin is converging direct observation with visions from her own imagination to propose a new kind of dissonant realism. One that is psychologically charged with symbolism and motifs, colour, shadows and light and the wavering of painterly resolution. Dissonance comes from the artist’s dissection and presentation of variety of realisms, mashed together with precision, each mode operating in a way that offsets or undermines the others.

From the photo-realistic to the surrealistic, the magical to the scientific,… these works are located in the shifting spaces in-between these types of realisms.”

Kate Stewart – Peer Artist and Arts Writer

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 (2017/18/20/21/22/23). 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 luxury 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.

Michael Reid Northern Beaches is pleased to present our first solo exhibition from Jasmine Mansbridge, whose series, Poetry Buried in Geometry, began with an artist residency at the Château d’Orquevaux in France.

“I have always loved to travel and create work in new environments; my subconscious absorbs and then produces new elements within my practice,” says Mansbridge, speaking with Jen Bishop of The Interiors Addict in a recent profile.

The result of Mansbridge’s French foray is her first Show in Sydney since 2018 – a collection of bold and brilliant paintings that tap into undercurrents of warmth, emotion and poeticism within graphic compositions that could otherwise appear slick and hard-edge.

This quieter, handmade sensibility peeks through in the painterly details of her optically charged, architectural works – a dynamic aptly described by her series’ title – bringing shades of nuance to the angular forms and trippy patterns of her dazzlingly constructed worlds.

“The paintings always start with a pencil drawing on stretched raw linen,” says the artist, whose work can sit beautifully within a contemporary interior or bring a moment of frisson to an otherwise classic home. “I then fill the space with white gesso and add colour last. This preserves my original mark and the energy of the idea.”

Northern Beaches painter and master colourist Louise Knowles will return to the gallery with an exquisite new series of abstract paintings that channel the warm, rosy tones and windswept textures of the sandstone found in her local environment. From earthy and sumptuous to bright and brilliant, the artist’s remarkable colour palette reflects her affinity for 1950s, 60s and 70s design and reveals the importance of pattern and collage in propelling her painting practice.

“As I explore abstraction in my practise, I am aware that life is a series of abstract experiences. Our brains try to rationalise every situation, some which are simply irrational.

Experiencing change, turns your world upside down in both positive and negative ways. It is easy to become chaotic in an already full life, juggling things. 

To express feelings and communicate through a medium of colour and texture has been an important tool for me. Putting paint on surfaces gives me the time to think and deconstruct my reactions to certain events. Colour has always been a part of my process and creating textures and depth through the layering of colour, allows the observer to witness the stages.

Light, colour and shadow are present in my work as metaphors for life, love and loss.

This latest series of paintings celebrate the sandstone that surrounds me. It’s where I live, where I swim and it was the foundation on which I grew.”

Musing on her first year of motherhood, SOFT SUMMER is Melanie Waugh’s escapism into well-known vistas. From Byron Bay to Crescent Head, Australia’s east coast and its iconic beaches. The canvases are filled with instantly recognisable aqua-blue waves lapping the pale sandy shores. Melanie’s subject matter is the Australian landscape. Here, the beach captures our attention.

Peeking out from the bush, we are privy to an outlook—a view—a perspective of a mother artist tenderly dipping her toe into a new world of juggle. The ocean provides a respite, and the art, a refuge. Soft textural brush marks adorn the canvases in thick, fast-worked layers. Melanie doesn’t hide her process. Instead, hints of pink steal glimpses from under the blues and greens—of which there are plenty. There is a place to seek out within the canvas. Akin to the landscapes, the dense paint provides a space for us to retreat. SOFT SUMMER allows us to hide if we want to. The paintings don’t demand anything from us. Rather, they offer a refuge in the environment and the art.

Based in Bellingen on the NSW Mid North Coast, Melanie has a Bachelor Of Fine Arts from the National Art School and a Master Of Arts from UNSW. In 2019 Melanie was a finalist in the Hawkesbury Art Prize, in 2020 a finalist in the King’s School Art Prize and in 2021 a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize and the 9×5 Landscape Prize.

Clare Dubina (b.1977 UK) is a multi disciplinary artist located in Naarm (Melbourne), holding a BFA in Printmaking from the University of The Arts, Philadelphia USA. Since graduating, in 2001, Dubina has moved through various creative roles within fashion photography and visual merchandising, redirecting her path in 2020 back to painting and ceramics to pursue art as a full time career. Clare draws on the female form as an ever evolving source of inspiration in her art practice, which had led to collaborations with iconic Australian brands such as Viktoria & Woods, Tigmi Trading, Bed Threads, along with notable press features by Hunter&Folk and The Design Files. In 2023, Clare successfully participated in two duo shows and several group shows, with this exhibition marking her first solo with a gallery. Clare’s works sit amongst private collections within Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

With this collection, my artistic exploration continues to hinge upon the female figure, inspired by the abstractions of it’s shapes, forms and negative spaces. I aim to convey the essence of femininity by capturing the strength, vulnerability, and complexity through a fusion of colour, line and design.

One of the most frequently asked questions of me is how long it takes to complete a painting, which continued to inexplicably weigh heavily on my mind as a negative connotation and an insecurity. Most things and experiences seem to be measured by the amount of time spent, and as an artist, hearing that question somehow made me feel that the work is being judged in the same manner. Delving into the interplay between creation and duration, I decided to challenge the notion that artistic value lies solely in the hours invested. Beyond the hands of the clock, I have been exploring the significance of the creative process, aiming to embrace the profound beauty found in the outcome and within the essence of the art. By relinquishing the need for a predetermined destination, my work becomes an ever-evolving narrative- a testament to the liberating power of leaning into the unknown.

Guided by the mantra ‘Time will tell”, I shifted from one piece to another, not focusing on completion, but allowing the pieces to evolve as a journey, and not as a destination. My work reveals a palette chosen not by reason, but by emotion and unbridled instinct, and can therefore almost be expected to change within the hour or day, leaving behind any noted completion times.

An artist in various forms over the years, Kerri Left school at 16 and after completing a course in Graphic Design, she landed a job with Ken Done as an Artist Assistant, she then went on to have a successful career in advertising as a designer, typographer, and illustrator. Later leaving the industry to raise a family in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.

“Creating has always been something I’ve done, it’s my lifeblood. I began painting in oils during COVID and haven’t stopped. Drawing on my life’s experiences and surrounds for inspiration.”

Kerri has recently made finalist in the The Hawkesbury Art Prize 2023, Paddington Art Prize 2022, The Lethbridge 2000 Small Scale Art Prize 2022 and The Doyles Art Prize 2022.

“This body of work represents a whirlwind of a year. Moving house 3 times in 2 years to renovate 3 houses, from the NSW Central Coast to Queensland and back to NSW where we bought a rundown 1920’s concrete cottage in a little town called Rylstone in March 2023. Since then, I found myself painting from a tiny room at the front of the house which was the old veranda. It has a little window at the very end that is generally covered in cobwebs, this is the perfect spot to paint. The light was beautiful most of the day and it was an opportunity to change the scenery through the window to anything I wanted, depending on my mood.

There is not much of a garden, until we renovate, however I’ve managed to save some of the 100yr old roses and plant some other flowers around to satisfy the gardener in me. Most of the flowers in my paintings are from my modest plantings around the house, foraged weeds from the side of the road or are gifted to me from some of the wonderful friends we’ve made.

I often use objects such as bowls, books, crockery etc that I am intimately attached to. They remind me of another time. Time spent with my grandmother, my children, or exotic places I’ve visited. I am intrigued by the idea that a simple object, a smell, a flower, or time of year can instantly transport you back to a moment to be enjoyed over and over again. For instance, the smell of wisteria always takes me back to my nan’s back yard, which was right next to the biggest mulberry tree you could ever imagine. We would pick buckets of mulberries for mulberry pie, the smell of sweet pastry and mulberry jam filling the kitchen.

It is from these experiences; I compose a simple scene to convey my thoughts. Drawing directly on the canvas on to a ground of burnt sienna with a brush to build the composition, mostly from life, I then begin adding colour, applying loose brush strokes that imply rather than adopting a more precise interpretation.

The title of this exhibition “Window Seat” comes from the idea that not only are there many windows in these paintings but also that it gives the viewer a window seat into my world of imagery and thoughts, it is also the seat that everyone wants, one that provides a place of imagination and contemplation.”

Homeland: Dhuruputjpi
Clan: Dhudi-Djapu
Moiety: Dhuwa

Muluymuluy’s paintings depict, Bol’pu; woven dilly bag. The age old practice of weaving baskets from the leaves of Pandanus continues today. Making them is very labour intensive. The conical woven basket is a sacred form which has ceremonial metaphoric meaning. It is also the age old form which Yolŋu have always used as a receptacle for important possessions and gathered food. These baskets can be so closely woven that they can even contain liquids if sealed with beeswax. In ceremony can be adorned with feathers and take on a sacred character. There are feminine references in this form. Following the loss of her mother Djurrayun Murrinyina stopped painting the lilies of Garrimala which had made Ms. M. Gumana famous.

This convention is part of the disciplines of spiritual hygiene which are so crucial to Yolŋu mortuary customs. Anything which impedes the progress of the departing spirit is forbidden. Nothing can be done which would endanger the eventual return of that soul back to the family of the living. Homeland: Dhuruputjpi Clan: Dhudi-Djapu Moiety: Dhuwa Muluymuluy was born at Ngukurr, her Father is Molulmi. She was the young wife of Wakuthi Marawili. Wakuthi was one of the oldest men in Arnhem land. He was known as Banbay – “Blind one” because of his poor eyesight. He passed away in 2005. His sons Djambawa and Nuwandjali have a large role in the day-to-day management of the large Maḏarrpa clan homeland, Yilpara. Muluymuluy has worked with them in her art as well as under Wakuthi’s direction to produce important Maḏarrpa clan paintings.

Kate Vella is a skilled painter who specializes in capturing the beauty of homegrown flowers, fruit, and vintage crockery. She is based in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and has been pursuing her passion for painting full time since 2018. Vella is largely self-taught and primarily works with acrylics, drawing inspiration from the natural world.

Her home and studio are located in a picturesque village with a stunning backdrop of farmland and the South Coast escarpment. Since her debut solo exhibition, ‘Antidote’, in Sydney in 2019, Vella has gone on to participate in numerous shows and collaborations. Her work has also been selected for various art prizes, including the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize 2020, the Kangaroo Valley Art Prize 2020, and the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize 2020. Her artwork has been acquired by private collectors across Australia and internationally.

The artists work has been featured in many publications, including Vogue Australia, Grazia, and The Age. In 2021, Emma contributed to a public art mural, CASA EL REY MURALS, in Daylesford, Australia. Emma has completed two artist residencies at The Convent Gallery and has been a speaker at Artists Day, representing the gallery for Tourism Australia’s international campaign.

Our final exhibition for 2023 will be a suitably vibrant celebration of the year that was – a curated survey of new work by eight artists who were among the bright stars of the Michael Reid program over the last 12 months.

The 2023 edition of our annual Summer Salon assembles a dynamic and diverse array of paintings and works on paper by Kate Vella, Elizabeth Beaumont, Julz Beresford, Linda Kruger, Louise Frith, Melanie Waugh, Oliver Abbott, NG Malla and Ben Waters.

From elegant small-scale pieces that will make the ultimate gift for the art-lover in your life to collectable works that promise to imbue your space with originality and panache.

Conor approaches traditional genres of painting in a contemporary manner as an autodidactic artist. He works primarily from life painting “alla prima”, a technique in which the painting is completed in one attempt. This energetic way of painting gives his work an immediacy that imbues his subject with life and movement.

“El Aula” was created over the course of a year, of which the artist spent eight months living and working in Spain. Knight worked as an assistant English teacher in the small city of Villena. This meant many mornings and afternoons in ‘el aula’, the classroom. Knight considers this period of his career as his own learning experience. While each still life could be carefully arranged in his studio, then lay the challenge of capturing the mood and light of streets and cities unfamiliar to him.