I painted the work on the right last year for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival Exhibition in Hobart.
The reference image was kindly supplied by Graeme Broxam (a learned authority on Tasmania’s wooden boat history)
I loved the image, and the more I researched the precious timbers of Tasmanian ship building, the more interested
I became… anyway, the grainy black and white picture was from about 1908 so it was a challenge!

It’s a bit like painting blind when you have no idea what the colours may have been at the time. When the painting
came back to my studio after the show, there was plenty of time to look at it on my wall. That can be good. Or bad!
(look at something long enough and you can’t resist the temptation to mess with it!). So this year I had another go.
Both (to me) have good elements, but the new version has much more depth/distance.
The risk of course to go too far and “overwork” the painting. (Months of work down the drain! I so hate that!).
This is it now. Forever.

Huon Ladies, 2024
Finished (really!), dry and available (from me). Click the picture for a larger view.

🎨 It was a “patchy” year for me I guess. A bit great, a bit not so much.
This was a year for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival so I did some research on rare Tasmanian timbers and some
of the old boats of the 1900s. The timber story is truly fascinating!
And the boats were beautiful, and hardy. Some still floating, many being faithfully restored and given new life.
My painting for the festival, Huon Ladies was based a very small b&w image taken in Dunnelly c1908. Challenging! I’m not happy
so I will revisit that work in 2024.

🎨 I was invited to paint boats racing on Sydney Harbour, based at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Kirribilli a few years ago.
The work was auctioned to raise money for Stepping Stone House. Self funded, SSH supports young people facing homelessness
due to poverty, family violence & inequality. In 2023, we changed that a little bit. A Certificate was auctioned and the lucky winner
gets a painting of their own boat. Keen sailors are hard to catch!
They are always away sailing somewhere, but the “study” is finally approved and we are on the way to a very nice painting! Stay tuned!

🎨 In March I entered a major landscape prize, sadly I bombed out on that one, with a very bruised ego. Never mind, we move on!
After that, here were some commissions, some new very small works, a couple of online exhibitions, then a new collection for the Moree Gallery.

🎨 I was selected as a finalist in the 9×5 Waverley Woollahra Landscape Prize which was great! Two Paintings too!
🎨 The Australian Society of Marine Artists (Marine Artists Australia) National Exhibition was held in Melbourne this year.
I entered two paintings, and won the Curator’s Choice Award (such a compliment that a great marine artist selected my work!),
and the work sold as well. Very happy was me!
🎨 I’m very excited to say that the Moree Gallery has already sold almost half of the new collection!

That’s it for 2023.

 

For me, a radical change in subject matter is a bit like a holiday! It’s rejuvinating.
Marine Artists Australia have introduced 4 small online exhibitions each year (a nice idea
because you don’t have to ship everything!)

Here are three very different pieces from two exhibitions, one online and one not –
I’m very excited to say I won The Curator’s Award in the ASMA National Annual Exhibition,
which was held at the Victorian Artists Society in Melbourne this year. It was a great surprise,
and even better, the work SOLD at the exhibition! Very proud am I!

The theme for one online show was “Fish & Ships” (cute!), so of course I had to paint a fish.
I really enjoyed the fish, maybe I’ll paint more sea creatures in the future.
I’m happy to say this one SOLD as well (but post exhibition).

The final work here, is the first study for a larger commission, so it’s only really a sketch.
I entered it in the ASMA National but I’m holding onto this one as reference for a larger study
and then the commission (click the image below for a larger view).
Stay tuned… if you like marine art.

It’s been a while buy my Very Small ones are back!

I’m planning to post a few groups of the little ones every week or two – so visit this site
and my window in Balmain (if you are close by). This is where they appear first,
followed by my Instagram page and finally Facebook.

Because of the low price (they are very small!) I don’t show these in galleries – so this is the only place you can aquire these little gems!

Well, I am a bit late but as it’s coming up to Easter and this is the Year of the Rabbit,
I thought it was ok!

I can’t say much so far this year but I did have a painting in the ASMA Lady Nelson Art Exhibition
in February. It was in Hobart City Hall during the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

For those who were not part of the residency aboard the beautiful tall ship Lady Nelson, like me,
the brief was to enter something maritime and Tasmanian themed. I thought I knew a little about Huon Pine
and some of the native forest timbers of Tasmania but no! The more I found out, the less I knew!
There are the timbers… and then there is a very rich and interesting maritime history here as well.
Another ‘kettle of fish’ entirely!

Anyway, as I didn’t have a couple of years available to do more research, I concentrated on the lovely old boats
crafted from now rare and protected (thankfully) Tassie timbers. Natural oils in the wood act as preservative
so many boats are still floating and (even better) are being restored.

Huon Ladies 76 x 76cm, oil on canvas, 2023.
(Available. Enquire here)
Sturdy, superbly crafted wooden boats of the early 1900s were built from the finest native timbers endemic to Tasmania’s West Coast.
Huon Pine (the ‘Prince’ of conifers), King Billy and Celery Top. The Huon Ladies are fine examples of Tasmania’s Heritage.
(Ref: Dunalley c1910 kindly supplied by Graeme Broxam).

2022 was a big year for me!

🎨 I was invited to participate in a few Group Shows in rural NSW, I was offered and Artist’s Residency plus a Solo Exhibition at the New England Regional Gallery (NERAM) in Armidale!
🎨 In August I was elevated to Fellow status of Australian Society of Marine Artists (FASMA). This is a huge honour as the existing Fellows unanimously agreed that I should join the clan, and they are the finest marine artists in the country, and internationally!

🎨 I rarely enter prizes but this year I did enter the Paddington Art Prize. And I made the grade as a finalist!
That in itself was so exciting! Then I found I received the Highly Commended Award!!
The 2022 judges were: Archibald winning artist Dhungatti man Blak Douglas, Dr Grant Stevens of UNSW Art & Design and Jane Devery, Senior Curator of exhibitions MCA Australia.

The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. Established in 2004 by Arts Patron, Marlene Antico OAM, this National prize takes its place among the country’s most lucrative and highly coveted painting prizes. The prize encourages the interpretation of the landscape as a significant contemporary genre, its long tradition in Australian painting as a key contributor to our national ethos, and is a positive initiative in private patronage of the arts in Australia. The exhibition was held at Defiance Gallery in Sydney’s Paddington.

So, the Year of The Tiger was a very good one!

I’m SO excited to be selected as a finalist in this year’s Paddington Art Prize!!!
I’m really honoured that they have chosen my painting of a power pole to show in a landscape award. 

I do like looking up. I spend a lot of time doing that, for many reasons (of which there are more and more these days of very challenging times!), but I digress…
Wires with blue sky beyond… look at them, to me they are visually a bit like a man-made tree, lacework maybe, or a tangled web.
I found out that no two are the same, like snowflakes or fingerprints.
They look like technology from a time long gone, yet they actually work to keep us connected most of the time.
They are dangerous when they fall over, so ultimately they will disappear to be replaced by underground wires (a much safer option),
but for now – I’m interested in those old weathered timber poles, and the newer green treated ones as well, and the way the light catches the wires creating some interesting patterns in the sky, a little like small branches of a tree!
I don’t expect to win at all – but I’m so excited just to be hung alongside over 50 talented artists!

UPDATE! I received Highly Commended!!!!

 

My solo exhibition “Just Look Up! is alive & kicking – right now – at the New England Regional Art Museum!

Suzy King is an established painter who is drawn to the oft unnoticed delights and beauty of what lies above
the everyday sightlines of the built environment. King urges us to raise our gaze and take in the architectural facades,
the juxtaposition of blue skies and rooflines,the patina of history revealed in layers of peeling paint.
The works in Just look Up!: An exhibition of observations above and beyond around the New England were created from the residency
King undertook at NERAM,and are a warm, appreciative view of surprising elements from around the region.” — NERAM September 2022

I sent the paintings to the gallery for installation, but I couldn’t be there until the day before the opening.
When I saw the work on the walls I was blown away by the hang! The walls are dark, the lighting is superb, and work looks amazing!
A HUGE thank you to NERAM, especially Belinda Hungerford for your support in curating the exhibition, and the team at NERAM for a wonderful opening.
It’s a beautiful (big) gallery with much to see as exhibitions run in parallel, a good thing (if you don’t like my work, there will be something you like!).

Just Look Up!
30 September – 6 November 2022
New England Regional Art Museum 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was invited to take part in a PopUp Exhibition at Orange.
The exhibition (was very big!) was organised and presented by Paper Pear
at the Corner Store Gallery, Orange in July.

The Corner Store was once a real corner store but is now a very popular art gallery.
This was a huge exhibition with over 150 works of art on show over ten days.

Shadow Dancing #1 and #2
🔴  Both paintings sold at the exhibition. A big thank you Steph and Pear in Orange!

 

June has been an exciting (and busy) time for me!

FIRST… I have achieved Fellow status of the Australian Society of Marine Artists!

It’s an honour and a privilege to be included in this select group of the very best marine artists in the country!
It’s really very humbling to know that the Fellows voted for me to join the fold. This is a lovely birthday present indeed!
Suzy King FASMA⚓️

SECOND… an invitation for an artists’ residency at the New England Art Gallery & Museum in Armidale!

I am so excited to do this. It will be my very first residency, and even more special is that I was invited (I didn’t apply).
I will be away exploring the New England in late July and the work created will result in a solo show at NERAM in late September.
Details to follow…!

AND… almost all my paintings have 🔴  Sold Out at the Moree Gallery!

I’m very lucky to have such a great relationship with the Moree Gallery (they have supported me for quite a few years now).
If you are heading up that way on a road trip, it’s a “must do” to drop into the Gallery and spend some time in this friendly Art Deco town.
There will be a new collection of my paintings in the Gallery in October/November, so keep and eye out!
More amazing news to follow soonish… I hope!