Art2Muse

Exhibition at Art2Muse Gallery 3 - 16 December 2013

• Launch 6pm – 8pm Thursday 5th December 2013

Artworks available to view in Sydney

I have always painted but it was only after settling near Coogee with my family a decade ago that I found the subject that inspired me to present my work in public. Coogee was a personal and creative reawakening. My parents grew up here and met on Coogee Beach. Some of the happiest times in my childhood were spent in my grandmother’s Coogee Bay Road flat and down at the beach pool, where she swam every day.

I realized that for me the visual element isn’t enough. I need to have an emotional connection with the subjects of my work. I’ve extended this approach to other places where I’ve lived, the inner city and upper Blue Mountains.

One theme that runs through many of my paintings is water. I love water, because despite being a colourless substance it’s always full of colour, always changing; light moves through and reflects from it. Not just the ocean – puddles, gutters and wet roads are all fascinating. Water takes different forms, in spray that
hits the beach, or mist in the mountains. Painting allows me to express how these things inspire and affect me.

The other central feature of most of my work is people. I love watching people just going quietly about their business, living their lives, unaware of me. By the way they move you can see how they relate to one another, how old they are – I love the differences between them. The wonderful thing about representational painting is
that I can reflect on these things. It’s a challenge to make familiar subjects new – a challenge I enjoy and find constantly stimulating. The sand on a beach can be a plum colour, for example, and concrete and weeds can be beautiful in unexpected ways. People too.

Solo shows

2012 - Being There, Gallery East, Clovelly
2011 - Moving Pictures, Charles Hewitt Gallery, Darlinghurst
2010 – Water on Canvas, Gallery East, Clovelly
2009 – Bricks and Water, Gallery East, Clovelly

Group shows

2012 – Views and Visions, Charles Hewitt Gallery, Darlinghurst
2012 – Coogee Community Art Show
2012 – Killcare Art show
2012 - CLOVElly Artists, Gallery East, Clovelly
2011 – St Charles Art Show, Waverley and Coogee Community Art Show
2010 – Hula Dreams, Gallery East, Clovelly
2009 – A Bar to call Home, NG Art Gallery, Chippendale
2008 – Sordid Tales, NG Art Gallery, Chippendale
2007 – There’s No Place Like Home, NG Art Gallery, Chippendale

Before becoming an art practitioner and teacher, Alex created award-winning book cover designs in the publishing industry, illustrated books and worked as an advertising illustrator and art director at Saatchi and Saatchi and other agencies.

Commissions considered