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 one of Australia’s most highly skilled and accomplished portrait painters. If you are interested in the Archibald prize, you no doubt will have seen a P...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 11 min
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 with Mt Kosciuszko in NSW. Her repeated exploration of that mountain has led to exciting reimaginings in paint. A winner of one of Australia's most sig...
Nov 27, 2022•47 min
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 Harding was on my wish list and when he agreed to an interview three years later I felt like I had hit the jackpot. I was right. He was one of the most aut...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 18 min
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 purely abstract but still somehow evoke a response; a memory, an emotion. The viewer is taken into an alternate space where objects might be floating ...
Oct 15, 2022•54 min
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 were swiftly painted alla prima, mostly in one sitting from life or an iPhone image, and the resulting group of over twenty portraits is titled 'Head...
Sep 20, 2022•45 min
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, often using metallic paint, the carefully placed collage pieces and thin lines scratched into the wet surface are just part of what makes up his arres...
Aug 25, 2022•1 hr 45 min
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 excellent survey shows. The exhibitions, titled 'Luke Sciberras: Side of the Sky', are running concurrently at Campbelltown Arts Centre and Bathurst Re...
Jul 25, 2022•22 min
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 didn’t stand a chance. The entire exhibition was bought by the National Gallery of Australia. Daniel describes himself in those university days in Can...
Jul 03, 2022•22 min
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 20th century greats Sir William Dobell and Brett Whiteley. I remember seeing those two small paintings hanging in the Art Gallery of NSW and being struc...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 9 min
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) The Archibald Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW runs until 28 August 2022 and will then travel to Victoria and regional NSW unt...
May 25, 2022•24 min
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 twice - the Archibald Prize - and her works are held in many private collections and public institutions. This year the National Gallery of Australia a...
May 11, 2022•40 min
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.Ervin Gallery in Sydney, brings together 120 of Steve Lopes' works including over 80 paintings and drawings, sketchbooks, prints and collages. This is ...
Apr 10, 2022•36 min
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 Art in Sydney, is set to contain some of the most impactful work she has produced to date. What's equally striking is the contrast between her paintin...
Mar 21, 2022•59 min
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 was about to open. As soon as I arrived at his Womerah Lane terrace I saw that it was overtaken by preparations for that show. Once Tom has created his...
Feb 27, 2022•16 min
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*. Nicole Kelly is an acclaimed Sydney artist, having won multiple art prizes, and you can find out more about her career and how she became an artist...
Feb 14, 2022•14 min
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 a collection of extended audio recordings from videos I've taken of my podcast guests. Joshua's works are extraordinary. His paintings often involve a...
Jan 14, 2022•22 min
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 and completing the work in one session, the viewer ultimately witnesses the movement and life which has been captured in each brushstroke. He has won...
Dec 19, 2021•51 min
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, drawings and sculptures which not only brings with it excitement, joy and optimism, but also is immediate in its nature. “As these works have come out of t...
Dec 09, 2021•12 min
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 interviewed me earlier this year and when I heard they were exhibiting at The Other Art Fair in Sydney I thought it was the perfect opportunity to inte...
Nov 28, 2021•55 min
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 usual demands of an imminent exhibition and created a body of work which has explored exciting new directions. Jules is well known for his beautiful por...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr
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 a blockbuster Tomescu show, looking at the artist's latest large works and how they connect to a group of key paintings and etchings from the past twe...
Oct 17, 2021•34 min
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 portrait prize and is now in its 100th year. This episode is a compilation of clips from my conversations with Archibald winners where they talk about ho...
Sep 20, 2021•59 min
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 and even on the front cover of a magazine. Kim is no stranger to the Archibald Prize - she’s been shortlisted in five out of the last seven years. And ...
Aug 31, 2021•1 hr 2 min
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. It was the first time she had entered the prize. In selecting the winning work, guest judge Elisabeth Cummings said the painting was a strong, confi...
Aug 03, 2021•43 min
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 intimate connection to these lands and their people through thousands of hours of drawing and painting directly from her subjects. The paintings in her recen...
Jul 10, 2021•58 min
'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. Joanna is a previous podcast guest and creates breathtaking landscapes which spill over towards abstraction. In this episode we talk about her stunnin...
Jun 15, 2021•25 min
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 painter. Australian artist Robin Eley, based in Los Angeles, is highly skilled in every step of the process, producing work which leaves many viewers i...
May 24, 2021•1 hr 18 min
In early 2020, as COVID was sweeping the world, Filippa Buttitta (pictured right) was facing her own personal crisis. She had been working on her entry for the Archibald prize when she had trouble with her eyesight and was finding it difficult painting the fine details of her work. Thinking she needed an eye test, she visited her optometrist which led to a swift hospital admission and the shocking diagnosis of an aggressive brain tumour. In the past year she’s had to make decisions which go to t...
May 06, 2021•42 min
See my video of Guido Maestri painting in the field on the TWP YouTube channel A riverbank in the Australian bush would be the perfect plein air location for many artists. A rushing stream, long tree trunks and a deep vista where the artist's eye can gather information into the distance. But what is more fascinating for leading Australian artist Guido Maestri, is what the substance he is applying to the canvas is capable of doing in response. Ever since art school he has been exploring the mater...
Apr 06, 2021•42 min
'National treasure', 'legend,' 'inspiration'. These were just some of the reactions from my Instagram followers when I posted that I would be interviewing Guy Warren. Guy is about to turn 100 years old. He has no less than 5 shows opening this year. But he is also plain spoken, practical, down to earth and modest. In typical style he seemed pleased when I told him of the Instagram reaction, but he quickly changed the subject. Guy has had an extraordinary career. He has won numerous awards includ...
Mar 14, 2021•58 min
