Australian Women Artists

The Podcast

Ep. 58 Amanda Penrose Hart

Amanda Penrose Hart is one of Australia’s most compelling contemporary interpreters of landscape.

In fact, judges at the Calleen Art Award recently described her as one of Australia’s most accomplished senior plein-air painters.

Amanda graduated with a Diploma of Fine Art from Queensland College of Art and then a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Griffith University, she developed a practice grounded in drawing, composition and a love of paint – which is becoming a wonderful thread through a number of the artists I’ve spoken to.

Travelling is central to her work: from Sofala and the Central West of New South Wales to European battlefields and coastal sites, she paints landscapes that really feel familiar.

She’s widely exhibited across Australia and has received major recognition including the Gallipoli Art Prize (2017), the Clayton Utz Art Award (2019) and the aforementioned Calleen Art Award (2024). Her work is held in significant public and private collections nationwide as well.

Amanda is part of the upcoming exhibition Lustre: Australian Artists in Greece & Crete WWll at Anzac Memorial Hyde Park Sydney. It will open on May 20 and will feature both Amanda and a previous guest on AWA, @joannalogue

Head to my bio above to hear our conversation

Amanda is represented by:

@kingstreetgallery
@philipbacongalleries

And you will find some of her works there as well as at her website:

www.amandapenrosehart.com.au

Images

1 APH by Michael Bradfield

2 Butter cloud 2021 110 x 110 (oil on canvas)

3 Sally’s Flat 2017, 38 x 52 (ooc)

4 Go lightly 2023 76 x 120 (oil on board)

5 Shepherds lookout ACT 2023 121 x 198 (oil on linen)

6 The Somme 1, 2017 100 x 180 (ooc)

7 Australian first division memorial, Pozieres 2017 41 x 62 (ooc)

Australian Women Artists

The Podcast

Ep. 57. Sophie Perez

Sophie Perez was born in Brighton, England. Her early love of art led to her formal academic training which culminated in her obtaining a Master of Arts in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London.

How she ended up in Australia...is an interesting story.

When she settled in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, she embraced the unique landscape, and it informed her artistic practice. Her work was described as loose, gestural brushwork, with sensitive colour relationships that sought to evoke the feeling of place rather than replicate it literally.

By the latter half of the 2010s, Sophie’s work had begun to gain broader visibility within Australia. In 2022, she was awarded the People’s Choice Award at the prestigious Paddington Art Prize. She has also been a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize (2020, 2022) and the Lethbridge Landscape Prize.

"For me, painting transcends observation—it’s an invitation to connect with the beauty and complexity of our surroundings. Through my obsession to paint, I seek to forge meaningful connections that bridge the gap between artist and audience, celebrating the shared experience of the world around us." Sophie Perez

Head to the link in my bio to have a listen to our conversation...or head to wherever you get your podcasts.

Sophie is represented by

Australian Galleries, Salt Contemporary Art and Art Images Gallery

Images

1 SP (in front of The Language of Trees ’ 170 x 300 cm diptych)

2 The daily commute, 2025 140 x 130 Oil on Belgian linen (all images are OOBL)

3 The joy and weight of MOtherhood 2025 140 x 130

4 Sundown 2025 75 x 70

5 Morning in the studio 2025 45 x 40

Check www.australiangalleries.com.au for availability of Sophie's works

Australian Women Artists

The Podcast

Ep 56. Caroline Walls

Today on the podcast I’m very excited to be joined by Melbourne based contemporary artist Caroline Walls.

Caroline’s work explores the emotional lives of women through really bold but pared-back forms, and it centres on the female body, intimacy and ‘the emotional texture of everyday life’. Her paintings, drawings and sculptures sit between abstraction and figuration and the figures, at first glance appear to be simple flowing lines and rich, earthy tones. But her work makes you stop, look and... feel.

It’s quite extraordinary how her paintings exude such an intimacy through their pared back images.

She has a background in design and spent years living between London and New York. That period exposed her to elements that would later surface in her own studio work through bold silhouettes and controlled colour.

She made the enormous decision to return to Australia to undertake studies at the Victorian College of Arts...which brought immediate recognition and changed the course of her life’s journey.

It’s a really interesting discussion about how her practice has evolved and how her experiences as an Australian woman and mother shape the images she now creates.

Caroline has an exhibition 'She Once Was'which runs till March 7, 2026 at Olsen Annexe, Sydney, Australia. Make sure you have a look if you’re in Sydney and you’ll see firsthand what we’re talking about in this conversation.

To hear our conversation, head to the link in my bio or wherever you find your podcasts.

To see some of her works you can also head to her website:

www.carolinewalls.com

Caroline’s solo exhibition can be seen @olsen_gallery @olsen_annexe

Images supplied by artist

1 & 2 CW

3 All Day Long

4 Seasons

5 To Know What to Say

6 Into Your Arms

7 Are You With Me Now

8 Keeping Time

9 She Once Was

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 55 Prudence Flint

Prudence Flint is one of Australia’s most compelling contemporary painters.

For more than three decades, Prudence has been painting seemingly ordinary women in ordinary everyday interiors undertaking ordinary tasks. And the effect is extraordinary.

The paintings are imbued with a stillness and the subjects are caught...almost mid thought. And that is quite captivating. Those (often) solitary figures captured in private moments away from the male gaze.

Her work is fabulous, engaging and thought provoking and very recognisable.

She has held solo exhibitions in London, Dublin, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart and has exhibited in major state and regional galleries. She is a seven-time finalist in the Archibald Prize. She won the Len Fox Painting Award (2016), the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2010), and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (2004).

In 2023, Prudence’s work featured in the NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria. Her work is held by collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, City of Port Phillip, Artbank, BHP Billiton, City of Gold Coast, University of Wollongong, Castlemaine Art Museum, X Museum, and numerous private collections.

It was a great conversation and to hear it, head to the link in my bio above.

Prudence is represented by @fineartssydney

Image: PF by Karina Dias Pires

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 53 Carly le Cerf

Over the last decade, I think it would be fair to say that Carly le Cerf has become one of the most quietly compelling voices in contemporary Australian landscape painting.

Her paintings exude atmosphere and exhibit a beautiful balance of abstraction and observation. Her approach to colour, atmosphere and, I guess, stillness is what makes Carly le Cerf’s paintings so special and the reason behind her commanding a significant amount of collecting attention.

Her inspiration was the, at times, overwhelming desert landscapes of the Pilbara. Those experiences and the influences on her work were profound. We discussed her creative processes in detail which was fascinating. Having seen her work recently at the Sydney Contemporary, I can vouch for the fact that you are drawn into the painting - it’s hard to explain. Her work is often done from an aerial perspective with very little, if any, skyline so the imposing landscape almost hits you in the face and causes you to look quite deeply into it.

It was also interesting talking about her Blue Mountains residency which meant a whole new colour palette and a whole new range of issues to resolve. She's done it brilliantly.

Head to the link in my bio to listen to her episode.

Carly is represented by Michael Reid Galleries and has an exhibition at Michael Reid Murrurundi (with Julz Beresford in partnership with R.M. Williams) in May 2026.

Images

1. Cerly le Cerf

2. Into Her Mystic 2023, 120 x 120

3. Oasis 2022, 104 x 288

4. Looking Out Over Redgums, 2025, 180 x 120

5. Wayfinding, 2025, 180 x 120

6. A Painters Path, 2025, 180 x 120

7. That Alluring Diamond Haze, 2025, 120 x 90

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep 51 Nusra Latif Qureshi

A conversation with Dr Rebecca Coates (MUMA)

My podcast guest today is Dr Rebecca Coates, and we will be talking about one of Australia's most compelling contemporary artists, Nusra Latif Qureshi.

Nusra Latif Qureshi bridges the ancient tradition of South Asian miniature painting with what has been described as, ‘urgent contemporary concerns about migration, identity, and cultural displacement.’

Her distinctive artistic practice challenges conventional boundaries between traditional and contemporary art forms. She has been granted numerous international prizes and residencies in locations such as New York, Los Angeles, and Banff. Her works are held in esteemed collections including the British Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, the Parliament of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Queensland Art Gallery, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

‘She points to history’s erasures, traces and ghostly images and encourages us to look, and then look again. Qureshi does not tell us what was once there but asks us to distinguish between what was and what remains.’

Hammad Nasar, 2005

Dr Rebecca Coates is a very accomplished museum director, curator, writer and lecturer. She is currently the Director of the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) having previously been Artistic Director and CEO of the Shepparton Art Museum (SAM). She has also worked at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Museum of Modern Art Oxford.

Over the course of her career, Dr Coates has curated over 50 exhibitions and organised programs for many of Australia’s leading contemporary art spaces, as well as international art museums and galleries.

Head to the link in my bio to have a listen to our conversation

https://nusraqureshi.com/

https://www.monash.edu/muma/home

Nusra is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne