I have always enjoyed the observed world, and the challenge of bringing that together with an interior one, becoming aware of the metaphor, or just painting something for the sheer pleasure of it.
I paint the things that are around the house; things lived with – including people - or the beauty of an accidental arrangement of shapes and spaces.
Welcome to my personal page. I would like to present my portfolio for you to view
Growing up in Sydney in the 1950's, my art education began through art in books, van Gogh, Cezanne,
Goya, El Greco. This was supplemented by the occasional visit to that Victorian edifice, the Art Gallery of
NSW - before the extension - seeing Streeton, Dobell and others, in the flesh. Later odd things like Gilbert
and George who were weirdly fascinating, and Christo wrapping Little Bay.
However it was paint that fascinated me, it was a purely visceral relationship, the smell and feel and the
mystery of creating a tactile world on a flat surface.
The primary importance of drawing was stressed to me
by a family friend whose drawings I had always admired. On leaving school I began learning the basics
at Julian Ashton's Art School.
It wasn't until the second half of the 70's, when I went overseas, that the idea of painting seriously began
to germinate. I had always painted, but also always thought I should be doing something more useful.
On arriving in London I enrolled in a small art school which had a good basis in drawing and worked at
whatever I could to survive, pay the fees, and travel in the holidays. I remember the shock of seeing a van
Gogh, the actual paint on the surface, I could feel his presence in the paint, and the tension in each brush
stroke, what courage it took and what power a painting could hold!
The focus of most of my work has been around the home, among the chaos of living life with family,
painting has always been part of it, from the bedsit, or the kitchen in flats in South London, to the garden
and all over our old farm house when we lived in France. Now my studio is a converted garage attached to
our house in the Southern Highlands.
My paintings combine my other obsession, cooking, food somehow morphing into paint, they are
kitchen /studio pictures, modest in scale and domestic in nature. I have always enjoyed the observed
world, and the challenge of bringing that together with an interior one, becoming aware of the metaphor, or
just painting something for the sheer pleasure of it. I paint the things that are around the house; things
lived with – including people - or the beauty of an accidental arrangement of shapes and spaces. I mostly
like to "let the scene arrange itself" and from there allow a colour or idea take shape.
Red Tree Cafe 2013
Home show 2012
Sturt Cafe2012
Artists Deli Gallery Bowral2009-10
www.michaelgrayfineart.com2008
Sturt Gallery Mittagong2007
Bowral and District Art Society2001
Bowral and District Art Society1997
Sturt Cafe Mittagong1995
Aignan France1994
Swiss Cottage London1986
Eutick Memorial Still Life Award Coffs Harbour2013
Mosman Art Prize2013
“Fair Trade” Goulburn Regional Gallery2013
Portia Geach Memorial Womens Portrait Award2012
Waverly Art Prize2012
Nora Heysen Centenary Art Prize for Still Life South Australia2011
Goulburn Art Award2011
RAAF Heritage Awards2010
Eutick Memorial Still Life Award Coffs Harbour2010-2012
Bell Gallery Berrima2009-2011
Three Ways of Seeing2009
All Things Great are Small Bowral2008-2011
Alvaro Painting Prize Bowral1996-2008
Portia Geach Memorial Award SH Ervin Gallery Sydney2001&2 2004-2009
Berkelouw Portrait Prize Bowral 2005-2008
Mortimore Prize Dubbo2006&9
Bell Gallery Berrima2004
'Love your Work' Institute of TAFE Sydney2003
SHRG Nick Scali Portrait Prize2002
Fishers Ghost Campbelltown2002
Group Exhibitions Gers France1993-94
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition London1985-90
Royal Overseas League Londonspan 1987
Spectator Art Exhibition Spinks and Son London1987
Cert II Ceramics TAFE 2002 - 2003
Cert IV Work Place Training and Assessment TAFE 1999
Royal Academy Schools London [Scholarship]
Advanced Diploma 1982 - 1985
City and Guilds of London Art School-
Painting-Diploma
1979-1982
Certificate in Photography -
Ultimo Technical College1972-1973
Julian Ashton Art School1970-1971
Part Time Goulburn TAFE 2012
Part Time TAFE Moss Vale and Goulburn2008-2011
Sturt Winter School2007
Part-time TAFE Illawarra Moss Vale and Goulburn1996-2007
Bowral and District Art Society1995-2011
Amersham College Berkshire England1988-89
Pirtek Still Life Prize 2013
John Copes Portrait Prize 2010
Alvaro Painting Prize 2002
SHRG Nick Scali Portrait Prize2002
John Copes Representational Prize 1998
Royal Academy Schools London1985
John Copes Representational Prize 2005
Alvaro Painting Prize 1999
Regional Exhibitions Gers France -1994
Wingecarribee Shire Council Art Prize 2013
Cootamundra Wattle Time Art Prize 2013
Camden Art Prize 2012
Eutick Memorial Still life Award 2011
Turnbull Memorial2008
Alvaro Painting Prize 2008
Portia Geach Memorial Award2007
Alvaro Painting Prize2007
Berkelouw Portrait Prize2005
Alvaro Painting Prize2005
John Copes Representational Prize2005
Alvaro Painting Prize 2002
John Copes Representational Prize2000
Berkelouw Portrait Prize 2008
Copyright © 2013 Kim Shannon | Website by Manifest Website DesignBack to top
Stay in touch