Regina Noakes is a significant Australian artist, who has won many art awards including the Lorenzo Medici 4th prize at the 2003 Florence Biennale and selected as a finalist in the 2007 Portia Geach Memorial Award exhibition. Regina has participated in international biennales and her paintings are represented in numerous private, corporate and public collections around the world, including The British Government Art Collection, Ministry of Water Resources, Sultanate of Oman, Fulham Palace, London, The Singapore Economic Board, Singapore and the University of Cambridge.

Regina is a full time artist living in Western Australia. She studied at the Art Students League, Boston, MA, USA; Institute of Education, Singapore, Dip.T. in art and music; Licenciate of Music, Australia; Associate of Music Australia; studied painting / assistant to Professor Antonio Napoli, Capri, Italy.

Regina has been teaching painting and given workshops at Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia since 2005. She has recently been invited to teach at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Regina has held over forty solo exhibitions in Australia, Italy, USA and Malaysia.

For a certain kind of artist, all the ages and times of one’s life are present while painting. This is how I would express my own aesthetic experience. This latest body of work Intermezzo, is a continuation of my interest in autobiographical inflected narrative with characteristic emphatic line, bold and lyrical.

Personal Insight

I try to describe, in visual terms, personal experiences, observations, and also memories. The people depicted in my paintings are never a true likeness. The paintings are not about what I have seen but about how I feel about what I have seen.

I live in Perth with my husband, Madeline our German Shepherd, 2 cats Bonnie and Tom and several goldfish, all of whom need constant feeding. Our children have left home, have their own families and live near by. My studio is a large room on the upper part of our house. Quite often when I go up the stairs to my studio with coffee and cheese in hand I have absolutely no idea of what I am going to paint about. I am really depending on my spiritual values. I am classical trained in piano and like to have music on all the time. Everyday I tune in to the various classical concerts on YouTube and by the end of the day I would have mentally attended 3 or 4 complete performances! This does help me to leave the world behind while I paint.

I normally paint for 7 to 8 hours a day. This is of course broken up time. There are usually several paintings in progress at any time, with me not knowing which one I will feel compelled to work on any given day. There is a certain mystique that prevails; leaving a painting at the end of a day’s work and a certain feeling that one requires so that it is right to begin work again the next morning.

When a painting does not seem right, I put it aside and go on to another. Often there are several of such pieces lingering in this problematic state as I strive to reconcile each one. This process may continue for many long months until “a moment of illumination of sorts” arrives in which solutions become clear and several pieces are resolved in rapid succession.

Many artists feel the need to make copious preliminary studies before they begin work on an actual painting. They seek to gain a thorough understanding of every element they may encounter, and then they plan an overall design and structure before proceeding. While this may serve the needs of some artists, it is a working procedure that does not suit my sensibilities. My sketchbook is most often the canvas that will eventually become the finished painting. Work begins with a mere hint, a suggestion, an open question, be it a line, a texture, a colour, a value, a shape, a form, or even the timbre or word from the music that is being played. From this, imagination takes suggestions and finds accidents – promotes accidents – that gives fresh insight.

When I work, the inherent geometry, the architectural structure of a painting evolves in layers of superimposed second thoughts, not in a preconceived composition when all is determined before hand.

Sometimes there is a quiet sadness in the paintings with the figures seeming to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. At times, that experience may be light and joyous.

All I am trying is to do is to capture the quiet, poetic, and personal description of the inner self.

 Full time painter, Western Australia. Studied at Students Art Association, Boston; Institute of Education, Singapore, Dip.T. (art and music); Licenciate of Music, Australia; Associate of Music Australia; 2 years Artist in Residence, painting assistant to Professor Antonio Napoli, Capri, Italy; Tutor at Fremantle Art Centre, WA (18 years), Workshops/ tutor Rockingham Art Centre.

Recent Solo Exhibitions

2024 Outside the Window, Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane

2023 Good Times, Inaugural Solo Exhibition (43 large works) @Gullotti Galleries, Cottesloe, WA

Mixed Gallery Exhibition, Galeria Aniela, Nowra, NSW

Several Commissions for clients

2022 Framing my Life, Art2Muse Gallery, Woollahara, NSW

2021 Solo Exhibition Art2Muse Gallery, Woollahara, Sydney

2020 SUMMER 2020 Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane

2019 Between Memories and Dreams, Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane

From Dreams to Memories, Galleria360, Arte Contemporanea, Firenze

Dreams and Reality, Art2Muse Gallery, Sydney

2018 Themes and Enigmas, Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney

2017 Small Windows, Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane

In My Own Place, Art2Muse Gallery, Sydney

Lifelines, Galleria 360 Arte Contemporanea, Firenze

2016 New Perspectives, Galleria 360 Arte Contemporanea, Firenze

Edge to Edge, Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney

2015 Then and Now, Galleria 360, Arte Contemporanea, Firenze

Mostra Personale di Regina Noakes, Hotel Cellai, Firenze

Regina Noakes More New Paintings, Art2 Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney

Stage and Circumstance, Linton and Kay Galleries, Perth

2014 A Story in Parts, Galleria 360 Arte Contemporanea, Firenze

Opposite Attraction, Duo with Dean Riley, Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane

New Paintings, Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney

2013 Mostra Personale Palazzo Riccardi, Firenze

Selected Invited Group Exhibitions

2024   Niagara Falls History Museum, Ontario Canada

Paintings for Fashion Show @Palazzo Moncado, Municipality of Caltanissetta, Sicily

Invitation Exhibition @ Liceo d’arte Manzoni Juvara and Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini, Sicily

2022. Water for Life, Maya Museum Cancun, Mexico

2020    Celebrating Women, International Women’s Day, Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane

“Expression Femme”,  Parisien division, “MG PARIS”, Ville Lumiere, Galerie Dobkine & Kie, PAR, Affordable Art Fair, MILANO

2019     Mostra collecttiva – Women in Art – La Galleria360 Arte Contemporanea, Zervas Art e Club UNESCO, FIRENZE

Rhythms of Emotions, Galleria 360, Arte Contemporanea, Firenze

2018     Subi in Blooms, Linton and Kay, Perth

Summer Show, Linton and Kay, Subiaco Perth, Summer Show, Linton and Kay, West Perth

2014 Telethon Italia, Linea Spazio Arte Contemporanea; Solo Palazzo Riccardi, Firenze, Italy

2013:  Mostra Personale, Palazzo Ricardi, Firenze, Italy; ‘Small Stories’ solo exh Gadfly Gallery, Perth

2012: ‘Quartet’ Redhill Gallery, Brisbane; Masters and Artists of Today, Galeria Tondinelli, Rome; Museo d’Arte,

Chianciano Terme, Siena, Italy; Posh Auction, Sydney; Three Arts Club. Chicago, Illinois.

2011:  Biennale of Chianciano; ‘Four Seasons’, Barcelona Showcase, Spain; ‘Women artists and their   Landscape, Pace Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Perth Concert Hall, Art Collection Display

2009 Cossack Art Prize, Western Australia; Three Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois.

2008 Perth Concert Hall; Posh Auction, Sydney.

2007 Portia Geach Memorial Award exhibition, Sydney; Garrison Arts Centre, NY; Friedrichstrausse Art         Centre, Berlin; Galerie Seyffert-Stahl, Berlin; Deck Chair Theatre Auction, Perth; Posh Auction, Sydney; Australian High Commission New Delhi; Singapore Art Festival; Sydney Art Fair.

Selected Achievements

2024: Finalist Cossack Art Awards, Cossack, WA

Selected to participate, International Art Exhibition, 9^th Edition, Niagara Falls History Museum, Ontario, Canada

2023: Finalist Mid-West Art prize, Geraldton Art gallery, WA

Finalist Art on the Pier, Rosebud, QueensCliff South Melbourne

Selected to participate international art exhibition, Maya Museum, Cancun, Mexico

2020 Selected to participate in Parisien Division, “Expression Femme”, MG PARIS

2018 Selected to participate in Telethon Italia, Italy

2015 Monograph REGINA NOAKES: Critical analysis of works, 1988 to 2015, By Virginia Bazzechi Ganucci Cancellieli, Publication sponsored by Palazzo Strozzi and Galleria 360 Arte Contemporanea, Firenze   2014 Artist for Telethon Italia, Florence, Italy.

4 Australian Visual Arts grants.

2013 Finalist Mandorla Art Award

2011 Leonardo Award, 3^rd Prize, Biennale of Chianciano.

Finalist Cossack Art Prize

2011 Feature artist, Cystic Fibrosis Exhibition WA

2009 Finalist Cowra Regional art prize.

Finalist Cossack Art Prize:

2007 Portia Geach Memorial Award; 1^st Prize Manhattan Arts Exhibition,

2003 Lorenzo Medici gold medal 4^th prize, Florence Biennale.

Collections:Private and Corporate

The British Government Art Collection;  Sting MBE ;  Eric Clapton, London and Bahamas; Royal College of Music, London;  Fulham Palace, London;  University of Cambridge; University of Norwich;  University of London;   Ministry of Water Resources, Sultanate of Oman ;   Singapore Economic Board;  Jean  and Charles Schultz Information Centre,SSU, California ;  Brunswick Corporation, Illinois ;    Visual Arts Centre, Eastern Washington University ; WomanMade Inc. Chicago;  Atelier International, New York ;  Perth Electoral Commission ; Toyota Australia ;  Data Analysis Australia ; Hilton Hotel, Brisbane ; Women’s Aid Abroad, Malaysia  ; Balya Cancer Foundation, Perth ; Evans and Tate Wineries; Best Western Palms Resort, Broome ; Hale Boys Grammar School, Perth;  Methodist Ladies College, Perth. Many Private Collectors, Australia and abroad.