Liam Waldie is an Australian mid-career artist based on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Drawn into the art world by his late grandfather, whose old watercolour box has since become a studio talisman, Liam’s work has been guided by a richly layered combination of learned skills and lived experiences. After excelling in art at school, he went on to study a BA Visual Fine Art at Queensland College of Art where he majored in illustration before turning to a graduate diploma in Teaching at Griffith University. The following decade saw Liam working with high school art students while working on commissions in his spare time before, having reached the pinnacle of the educational landscape, he decided to move to Mornington, establish his own design business and set up a studio. Since then, Liam has immersed himself in the Peninsula’s striking natural environment where he documents the conditions and elemental qualities around him, working with photography and charcoal to visually map his experiences before returning to the studio to render them in oil on canvas.

After a lifetime in hot bush environments, Liam was captivated by the Peninsula’s cold bush climate and the natural landscapes it cultivated. The gnarly character of the tea trees that line the coast, the warren of tunnels their roots shape, the coarseness of the sand, the European visual cues of the bleached, history-laden coastline and the tendency for rocks to fall apart underfoot all conspired to shape paintings that frame a moment in time and celebrate nature as the axis upon which everything else spins.

Liam has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Australia, was the recipient of the Sustaining Creative Workers Grant 2021 and has his work held in private collections in Australia and internationally.

“My paintings are a record of a time that has passed, yet whilst in view, it is in the present. I am interested in how we as humans experience a place differently. We can visit the same place, same time of day and look at the same thing in front of us, yet we will often take in a completely different view, or when reflecting, remember a completely different moment. I feel that the experience of a painting is similar to this.”

Uncharted

Uncharted represents more than just a location awaiting discovery; even if it’s marked on a map, true understanding only unfolds through personal experience.  When we stand in a place, peering in the same direction, each of us takes away a unique memory, giving life to the mere coordinates on a map.

This body of work is my interpretations of various locations across Australia that I have explored and immersed myself in. These artworks serve as reflections on specific moments in time—moments when I was present in those spaces, be it alone, or accompanied by those I love, consumed by particular thoughts, or perhaps the absence thereof. Essentially, these paintings transcend mere depictions of places; rather, they serve as notations of my existence, immortalising the past long after it has evolved.

The creation of these paintings is often a time-consuming process.  whether it’s the deliberate mark-making, the blending of colours, the gradual oxidation of oil paint, or the patient observation waiting for inspiration. This meticulous journey leads me into a realm of reflection and meditation. Through this passage of time, I construct a representation that may resemble an existing place.  The act of painting becomes a transformative translation, preserving what once was into a visual testament of my journey.

Education

2006 Griffith University Grad Dip Sec. Education (Visual Arts)
2005 Queensland College of Art BA Visual Fine Art

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023 Solo Exhibition Uncharted at Art2Muse Gallery, Woollahra, Sydney
2022 A Way of Seeing, Onshore Studios
2021 echoes. Solo Exhibition, 22 Oct – 21 Nov,
Manyung Gallery Group, Sorrento, VIC
2020 Bali and the Ninch, Manyung Gallery, Flinders
2018 BRANDED, Mornington

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021 ‘Pandemonium’, Paper Pear Group exhibition, The Corner Store Gallery, Orange, NSW
2021 Under the Sun, Cook Street Collective, Flinders, VIC
2019 Mt. Eliza Art Show
2019 Manyung Gallery, Mt. Eliza, Sorrento, & Flinders
2019 Green Wedge Exhibition, Merricks General Store
2019 Flinders Art Show
2019 Red Hill Art Show, Red Hill Consolidated School
2019 Unframed Art Exhibition, Mornington
2019 Red Hill Regional Show, Red Hill
2018 BRANDED, Mornington

Publications

2022 A way of seeing, Art Documentary
2021 Art Edit Magazine, Q+A Issue #27, March 2021
2019 Peninsula Essence Magazine, ‘Fresh Perspective’, written by Andrea Louise Thornton

Grants & Prizes

2022 Lethbridge Landscape Prize, (Finalist), Paddington, QLD
2021 Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative 2021
2021 Lethbridge Landscape Prize, (Finalist), Paddington, QLD
2019 SBS Landscape Prize, Mornington
2019 SBS Portrait Prize, Mornington