Watch the video version of my interview with Laura Jones here on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel Congratulations to previous podcast guest Laura Jones on winning the Archibald Prize – Australia’s most famous portrait prize – with a sensitive and meaningful portrait of writer and environmentalist Tim Winton. On Friday I interviewed Laura s…

See the video version of this episode on the TWP YouTube channel here. This is my 5th collection of Loading Dock Interviews of entrants to the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes. Six brave painters fronted my camera and microphone as they delivered their work to the packing room at the Art Gallery of NSW via the loading dock. Thankyou to these arti…

Podcast listeners click here to view the works Caroline Zilinsky’s paintings freeze pivotal moments in our culture’s history, encouraging us to reflect upon our times, whether it’s the absurdity, the horror or the humour. At the risk of being labelled a conspiracy theorist, she’s attracted to the dilemmas brought on by the internet era and shines a…

Podcast listeners click here to see images of the work Over the years, podcast guests have shared some fascinating back stories to paintings they have made, stories which you could never have guessed just on viewing the work. Sometimes that back story has made me look at the work in a totally different way and I’m bringing you another eight artists…

Podcast listeners click here to see images of the works Over the years, podcast guests have shared some fascinating back stories to paintings they have made, stories which you could never have guessed on merely viewing the work. Sometimes that back story has made me look at the work in a totally different way and I’m bringing you a few of those to …

Podcast guests talk with me about the flow state! See below for timestamps and links to each guest’s full podcast interview and video 3:39 Julie Nicholson and Fiona Verity – Podcast | Instagram video 6:40 Ann Thomson – Podcast | YouTube 7:54 Joshua Yeldham – Podcast | YouTube 10:15 Antonia Perricone Mrljak – Podcast | YouTube 11:25 Wendy Sharpe – P…

Above photo of Jan Senbergs by Riste Andrievski Click play for my podcast introduction to this interview and scroll down for the transcript. Podcast listeners click here and scroll down for transcript. Watch the YouTube video of Jan Senbergs’ studio and work here Links Jan Senbergs’ website Jan Senbergs on Instagram Jan Senbergs at Niagara Gallerie…

See a video version of the interview with curator Jackie Dunn here See a video version of the interview with artist Desmond Lazaro here The largest exhibition of Kandinsky’s work ever to be seen in Australia has just opened at the Art Gallery of NSW! The exhibition, titled simply ‘Kandinsky’, brings together over 50 works of one of the 20th century…

This episode is a conversation between James Powditch and Maria Stoljar in front of an audience at the Art Gallery of NSW, recorded by the Art Gallery Society James Powditch has always loved the movies. As a child in the 70s and 80s he would watch whatever he could get away with – from Taxi Driver to Deliverance. But in recent years, after being sh…

Risk. Some painters want it in their toolbox while others are terrified by it. But nearly every painter will tell you that you need it in order to move forward in your practice. It might be using a new material, drastically altering the composition of a nearly completed painting or creating a completely different body of work to what had previously…

More inspiration from the archives! Here are another 12 past podcast guests talking with me about colour. Links to full podcast conversations and YouTube videos on each of the artists in this episode: 2:13 David Griggs – Podcast | YouTube 5:00 Laura Jones – Podcast | YouTube 9:08 Lewis Miller – Podcast | YouTube 11:10 Lucy Culliton – Podcast | YouT…

This episode I’m bringing you some gems from the archives. Leading artists talk with me about colour! Episodes of featured artists: Jo Bertini Paul Newton Philip Wolfhagen Nicholas Harding John Wolseley Peter O’Doherty Links YouTube channel Talking with Painters website Sign up to the TWP newsletter Nicholas Harding talks with me about his Wynne pr…

Watch an edited version of this conversation (4 mins) on the YouTube channel here Ann Thomson, one of Australia’s most important artists, might be in her 90th year but she shows no signs of putting down the brush. A powerful collection of works is currently hanging in a solo show at Sydney’s Defiance Gallery and Ann is looking forward to a busy 202…

Watch the edited video version of this podcast episode on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel The exhibition of Francis Giacco’s paintings now showing at Australian Galleries in Sydney has been a long time coming. Covid pushed back the scheduling but it was worth the wait! I met Francis at the gallery and we walked through the exhibition talk…

In the final episode of the series ‘When I won that art prize’ we go back to 2021 when a 27 year old Georgia Spain won the Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, the first time she had entered the prize. In the same week she was announced the winner of the Women’s Art Prize Tasmania. These announcements were made less than 12 months after…

In this episode I’m taking you back to my interview with Megan Seres who won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2016. Megan received the $150,000 in prize money for her stunning painting, ‘Scarlett as Colonial girl’, which depicted her daughter in 19th century dress against a golden landscape. Megan hadn’t planned on entering the competition…

You can see an edited video version of the interview with Julia Gutman here Australia’s most famous art prize was awarded yesterday at the Art Gallery of NSW together with the Wynne and Sulman prizes. The $100,000 prize went to a shocked but happy 29 year old Julia Gutman for her fabulous portrait of singer/songwriter Montaigne. It’s titled ‘Head i…

In part 2 of the series ‘When I won that art prize’ we go back to episode 29 when James Drinkwater recalled winning the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2014. The award included a three month residency in Paris at the Cité Internationale des arts, a dream come true for any young painter. However, when he and his young family set off for…

Golden moments from the archives! While I’m busy updating my YouTube channel and taking a break from new interviews, I’m thrilled to bring you a new series featuring clips from past podcast guests. In my first series ‘When I won that art prize’ I look back at conversations I’ve had with painters about their experiences with winning awards. Although…

See the YouTube video of Maria Stoljar’s earlier conversation with Idris Murphy here Last Thursday I was thrilled to speak with Idris Murphy, leading contemporary artist and a previous podcast guest, in front of a live audience at the S.H.Ervin Gallery in Sydney. It’s where the survey exhibition of his work, ‘Idris Murphy: Backblocks’ is now showin…

For those of you interested in portraiture in Australia, Yvette Coppersmith needs no introduction. She has painted dozens of portraits, including a collection of fascinating self-portraits, and is regularly shortlisted in the country’s most competitive portrait awards. In 2018 she was awarded the one that would place her in Australian art history –…

The gestural marks in Anthony White’s work are often bold and demanding of the viewer’s attention. These abstract works vary from swirling lines in saturated colour, to textured surfaces and more formal collaged constructions. What is not apparent on the surface of the canvas is the time the artist has spent reading, writing and researching in the …

Most artists know that painting a portrait in a tradition where colour and form appear realistic takes years of training where trial and error play an important part. This is part 2 of my interview with leading portrait painter Paul Newton. He makes the analogy of a painter being like a cook and it’s an appropriate one. And like a celebrity chef pr…

It was the 80s. Paul Newton had finished a science degree and was a singer in a band. He sensed, though, that this was not meant to be his life’s work. ‘I’m a bit of a perfectionist and unless I can do something really well I find it frustrating to do it at all’. So he decided to change course and he put that perfectionism to good use; he is now on…

It’s hard to define what makes a good landscape painting but, if you investigate the backstory, you might find the artist has a close connection with that place. In Belinda Street’s October show at Straitjacket Artspace, ‘Keep your feet on the ground and your thoughts at lofty heights’, her bond with the alpine landscape was obvious, particularly w…

We lost one of our greatest artists last night. Nicholas Harding – landscape, still life and portrait painter – and my heart sank when I heard the news. It’s early afternoon and already there are many tributes coming through in the newspapers and social media. It’s clear he will be greatly missed by many. When I started this podcast, Nicholas Hardi…

You can also see a short video of Fred in his studio here There is something mesmerising about Fred Fowler’s paintings. The multitude of small, colour-filled shapes scattered across a monochrome background raise a lot of questions. Is that a pink cat? A cactus? An alien? Next to a mobile phone tower? Are they related? Other amorphous elements seem …

Jacqui Stockdale is a previous podcast guest . I asked her back onto the show after I saw a series of moving portraits she posted on Instagram. Her stepfather, George Stirling, was nearing the end of his life and Jacqui was painting the portraits of family and friends who were visiting over that difficult time. George passed away in June. The works…

See an edited video version of this conversation on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel here ‘Colour, for me, is the main game’ Idris Murphy tells me as we sit in his studio in Sydney’s southern suburb of Kurnell, a stone’s throw from Botany Bay. On various easels around the room are works in progress. His distinctive energetic brushstrokes, …

For over 25 years, previous podcast guest Luke Sciberras has been immersing himself in landscapes across the world, returning to his studio to draw on the smaller works created from life. His paintings are bold and have a commanding presence. Many of those works, as well as drawings and prints, have been brought together for the first time in two e…

Click play for the podcast episode – you can also watch an edited video version of this episode on the TWP YouTube channel. Most artists remember their first show. Maybe they were lucky enough to sell a few works, usually to family and friends. Daniel Boyd remembers his. It was in the year he graduated from university, 2005, but family and friends …

Scroll down to watch two videos of Sam on the TWP YouTube channel. In 2010 Sam Leach won the Archibald and Wynne Prizes, two of Australia’s most famous awards for portraiture and landscape painting, becoming only the third person in the prizes’ history to win both in the same year. The two artists to achieve this rare distinction before him were 20…

It’s that time of the year! The winners of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes have been announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and in this episode you’ll hear my interviews with each of those artists about their winning works: Blak Douglas (Archibald Prize) Nicholas Harding (Wynne Prize) Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro (Sulman Prize) Th…

One of Australia’s most significant artists returns to the podcast! Del Kathryn Barton spoke with me the day before the opening of her spectacular exhibition ‘the women who fell to earth’ at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, showing until 28 May 2022. Internationally renowned, Del is well known in Australia for having won the country’s most famous art prize t…

See video highlights of this conversation on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel It’s not often that an artist gets to see almost a quarter of a century of their work in one space but in this episode Steve Lopes tells me what that feels like. The impressive survey exhibition ‘Encountered’, curated by Kon Gouriotis and now showing at the S.H.E…

Marikit Santiago is one of Australia’s most impressive artists, combining a skilful representational painting technique with powerful imagery. Mythology, Disney, her Filipino heritage, religion, guilt, motherhood and family are examples of the subject matter she draws from and her upcoming show, ‘For us sinners’ at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian …

I interviewed the acclaimed artist Tom Carment for the podcast in 2019 and this episode is the extended audio recording from video I filmed in his studio. A lot was going on creatively for Tom at the time. It was at about the same time as his book ‘Womerah Lane: Lives and Landscapes’ was released and his solo show at King Street gallery in Sydney w…

This is the second episode of my summer series where I’m bringing you longer conversations with past podcast guests, from recordings when taking video of the artists for the Talking with Painters YouTube channel. The video of this episode’s fabulous artist, Nicole Kelly, is the second most watched on the channel, which currently has over 150 videos…

In podcast episode 101 I spoke with leading Australian artist Joshua Yeldham in the lead-up to his sell-out show ‘Providence’ at Arthouse Gallery in Sydney. I remember being fascinated by his approach to painting and his views on the creative process. We also recorded a separate video and this episode is the first of my 2022 Summer Series which is …

Whether it’s a moody vase of flowers, a reclining nude or the incredible ridges of the Blue Mountains, Robert Malherbe depicts his subject matter in sensuous, fluid brushstrokes which give the impression the painting was completed only moments ago. Working from life, it is vitality which Robert aims to capture in his work and by painting alla prima…

A video version of this episode can be viewed here Justin Paton is the co-curator of the most exciting exhibition to arrive on Sydney’s doorstep since our world was upturned by the pandemic. ‘Matisse: Life and Spirit, Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris’, now showing at the Art Gallery of NSW, is an uplifting collection of paintings, drawi…

Fiona Verity and Julie Nicholson have a lot in common; they were both born in the UK, both met their husbands while backpacking in Australia, are both emerging artists and are both very funny. But they also have distinctly different personalities and it’s this contrast that makes their arts podcast ‘Art Wank’ so interesting and entertaining. They i…

Watch highlights of this episode on the YouTube channel The impacts of COVID have challenged the world in a multitude of ways, but for Sydney artist Julian Meagher they appear to have sharpened his focus. Over the last 14 months, with no other deadline than his upcoming show at Yavuz Gallery, he has taken the opportunity to free himself from the us…

See the YouTube video version of this podcast episode here Fresh out of Sydney lockdown, the incredible works of Aida Tomescu are showing both in Sydney with Fox Jensen Gallery and in Hong Kong with Flowers Gallery in two outstanding exhibitions. To add to this, in early December 2021, Orange Regional Gallery will be exhibiting what promises to be …

Scroll down for transcript If you’ve been listening to this podcast over the years, you would probably know I’m a self-confessed Archibald tragic. I’m fascinated by the depiction of the human face and figure in paint and that is exactly what the prize celebrates each year at the Art Gallery of NSW. The Archibald Prize is Australia’s most famous por…

Many Australians may have seen Kim Leutwyler’s work without ever having set foot in a gallery. In 2019 her impressive Archibald painting of television presenter Faustina Agolley was splashed across Sydney to promote the prize. The striking image was on a huge banner above the entrance of the gallery, on bus shelters around the city, in newspapers a…

One of Georgia Spain’s paintings was taking up more than its fair share of her Tasmanian studio. So she thought one way of freeing up some room would be to send it to the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney as an entry into the Sir John Sulman Prize. A few weeks later she found out it had been shortlisted and a week after that, to her astonishment, it won…

Jo Bertini’s recent exhibition at Sydney’s Arthouse Gallery, ‘Songs of Dry Hills’, alluringly portrayed the landscape she is drawn to repeatedly – the desert. Her love of that landscape and its First Nations People has led her to spend months at a time not only in the deserts of Australia but also those of India and the US. She has built an intimat…

‘Everyone has a COVID story’ Joanna Logue told me when we spoke recently about her show with Scott Livesey Galleries in Melbourne. Part of Joanna’s story is that, for the first time in her career, she wouldn’t be attending the opening of her show. The paintings had travelled to Australia from her home in Mount Desert Island in the USA without her. …

We’ve all been there. You see an artwork and think ‘surely, that is a photo’. But as you get closer and read the description, you accept it is made of paint, expertly applied, creating the illusion of reality. I am in awe of the artists who work in this way because it calls for painstaking labour and the technique is certainly not suited to every p…