Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 45 Loribelle Spirovski

Today it’s my privilege to be joined by Australian contemporary artist Loribelle Spirovski.

Loribelle's passion for art began very early. She and her family moved to Australia from the Philippines when she was a young girl. This experience was very formative and continues to shape her practice.

Her formal art education began at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, and after graduating, Loribelle quickly established herself in the Australian art scene.

Her early works were marked by introspective themes, often reflecting the emotional complexities of migration, identity, and cultural hybridity. She began exhibiting in group shows and small galleries, gradually gaining recognition for her distinctive style that fused photorealistic detail with surreal, dreamlike compositions.

We had a great chat covering a broad range of topics...like how the colours of Australia were almost overwhelming when she first came here as a child, why she focussed on portraiture, how and why American filmmaker David Lynch became such a big influence, how a huge effort on her part to create her first Archibald entry almost led to her giving up on that prize...but her response was fabulous. And actor John Bell was a big part of that. How a painful condition led her to sit disconsolate in front of her easel not being able to hold a paintbrush, then she started listening to Indigenous musician William Barton and instinct took over, she threw away the brush, put on some gloves...and finger painted. The portrait won the Archibald People's Choice in 2025.

A finalist in the Archibald Prize 4 times, the Portia Geach Memorial Award 8 times and a finalist in The Lester Prize for Portraiture. Loribelle has exhibited widely across Australia, Europe, and the United States.

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

Her works are available via @nandahobbs @arcadiagallery @lennoxstgallery

Insta images

1. LS (supplied by artist)

2. Finger painting of William Barton 2025 oil on canvas 182 x 137

3. The Alchemist oil on canvas 150 x 120

4. John Bell at home 2017 oil on canvas 166 x 110

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 44 Rachael Sarra

Rachael Sarra is a proud Goreng Goreng woman whose incredible work bridges fine art, design, business and education.

You might know Rachael’s powerful visual language from a postage stamp that commemorated the 1967 Referendum, from murals lighting up Brisbane, or from collaborations with major brands like Kmart and Tourism Australia.

Her artistic style is distinct and contemporary, characterised by vibrant, striking, fabulous colours including purples, pinks, greens, oranges, and blues. As I said it’s visually striking and engaging. However, beneath the aesthetic appeal, her work is deeply rooted in her heritage.

She’s also the creator of vibrant resources for schools and a children’s book introducing counting through Aboriginal art. Basically, she has helped shift perceptions of what Indigenous art can be.

We had a great chat. It was covering topics such as exploring creativity, challenging dynamics and spaces and breaking moulds. We discussed her unique use of colours and the use of colours being a conscious decision but in many ways it's also a sub conscious decision. How she feels the weight of responsibility. How much of herself she can give to corporates.

It was an important conversation, engaging and honest.

Head to the link in my bio to have a listen.

Head to Rachael's website to have a look at some of her work

www.rachaelsarra.com

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 43 The Boyd Women Artists: The Hidden Line.

A conversation with curator Sophie O’Brien

For decades, the Boyd name has resonated through Australian art history — yet the creative lives of the Boyd women, the artists who worked in the shadows and around the edges of that celebrated dynasty, have too often been overlooked.

At Bundanon NSW, a remarkable new exhibition is changing that. The exhibition is called The Hidden Line: The Art of the Boyd Women and it brings together paintings, drawings, ceramics and textiles that reveal a brilliant artistic lineage stretching back through 5 generations of Boyd women.

The exhibition could almost be described as a redrawing of the Boyd family story, revealing the works of women whose contributions were always there, just not always seen.

At the heart of this reclamation is Sophie O’Brien. Sophie is a very successful curator, director and writer. She has previously worked in senior curatorial leadership roles at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in Aotearoa New Zealand, and at the Serpentine Galleries and Tate Britain in London. She has also worked on numerous large-scale commissions with renowned international artists and has previously led the exhibition teams for the Australian Pavilions at the Venice Biennale and the Biennale of Sydney.

We had a lovely conversation about the discoveries, the surprises, and the emotional resonance of finally bringing the Boyd women into the light.

The exhibition is now on at Bundanon till Feb 2026. Follow the link to find out more.

https://www.bundanon.com.au/the-hidden-line/

With greatest of thanks to @articulate.advisory and @sian_davies for inviting me

Insta images:

1 Mary Nolan, Tessa, Arles 1964

2 Yvonne Boyd, Melbourne Tram 1944 oil on muslin on cardboard

3 Lucy Boyd Beck, Orpheus and Eurydice c 1974-9 glazed stoneware painting

4 Hermia Boyd & David Boyd Jug with rabbit, bird and fox undated, ceramic

5 Lucy Boyd, Pulpit Rock 1985 oil on canvas

6 Portrait room, Bundanon

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 42 Natasha Walsh

Natasha Walsh doesn’t make art for the Archibald Portrait Prize. She is really interested in building her practice in a way that interests her.

Nevertheless, in 2025, in her early 30s, she became an Archibald finalist for the 8th time!

One of those finalist years (2018), coincided with her winning the Kilgour Prize, the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and the Mosman Art Prize tying with Margaret Olley as the youngest ever winner.

But it certainly hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Far from it.

It was a lovely long, far ranging, very open and, at times, emotional conversation. Which isn’t surprising given her horrific experiences in Paris whilst attending the Whiteley Scholarship.

But I reckon Natasha is very brave. In life as well as her art.

We discussed the enormous effect her dyslexia and ADHD had on her life and how the Nat. Art School helped smooth some paths for her. It was a beautiful insight to an artist’s mind and thinking and creative process.

With her experimentations (especially with copper) and successes and persistence and resilience and her constant challenging of existing structures of bias...it’s little wonder she’s been described as a key figure in a new generation of Australian artists.

Head to the link in my bio to hear our conversation.

Natasha is represented by N.Smith Gallery

Insta images

1 NW portrait by Janie Barrett

2 Dear Hilma (The quiet point of a meeting), 2022 oil on copper 30 x 22 cm

3 The Voyeur (formerly Untitled) 2023 oil on copper 60x60 reference Egon Schiele The Hermits (Self portrait with Gustav Klimt 1912)

4 Portrait of a Young Medusa 2023 oil on copper 26x18 sitter: Montaigne (profile Portrait of a Young Lady 1465)

5 The Yellow Odalisque of Brunswick 2024 oil on copper 53x50 sitter Atong Atem (reference Matisse Yellow Odalisque 1937)

6 Dreaming of rose scented tea leaves carried to me on a summer breeze 2025 oil & pigment on copper 74x100

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 41 Evelyn Chapman - a conversation with Dr Anne Gerard-Austin

Dr. Anne Gérard-Austin is the Curator of International Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales and a significant contributor to the current exhibition at the AGNSW, Dangerously Modern, Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940.

And we were discussing the Australian artist, Evelyn Chapman.

By the time World War I ended in November 1918, Evelyn Chapman was already an established young painter, with training in Sydney, Paris, and London (which is a story in itself!).

Like many artists of her generation, she had been profoundly shaped by her exposure to European modernist ideas before the war. However, it was the devastation of the conflict — and her extraordinary access to the Western Front — that would give her most enduring works their form and content.

Evelyn Chapman’s work from France is characterised by the juxtaposition of devastation and rebirth. She recorded shattered churches, cratered fields, destroyed villages, and trenches filled with wreckage. Yet, unlike official war artists who often focused on the mechanics of war and military life, Chapman’s eye lingered on the aftermath: broken walls standing against the sky, poppies springing up from scarred ground, light piercing through collapsed arches.

On returning to Paris in 1919–20, her battlefield works were exhibited at the Salon des Beaux Arts, where they were admired for their emotional clarity and technical execution.

Head to the link in my bio to hear our conversation

Instagram images

1. Ruined church with poppies, Villers-Bretonneux circa 1919
oil & tempera on thick grey cardboard 39 x 30.5

2. EC painting at Villers-Bretonneux gelatin silver photograph
19.9 x 15

3. Old trench, French battlefield 1919
oil & tempera on textured grey paper on cardboard
54 x 73.3

4. Interior of a ruined church, France 1919
oil & tempera on grey card on board
56.3 x 41.4

5. Ruined buildings 1919
oil & tempera on grey card
28.8 x 38.5 cm board

6. May Moore, portrait of Evelyn Chapman 1920–1928
gelatin silver photograph 14.8 x 8.4

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 40 Amber Wallis

Amber Wallis has carved out a distinctive space in contemporary painting with canvases that blend abstraction and figuration, intimacy and intensity. Her art often emerges from deeply personal narratives.

Amber holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Canberra School of Art and a Master of Visual Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts. The VCA years were formative: she pushed an already fluid practice toward a deliberately unstable seam between figuration and abstraction, learning to let images “stain” their way into being on raw or lightly primed linen.

In 2008 Amber won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, one of Australia’s most significant awards for an emerging painter. The prize took her to Paris for a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, and we had an interesting discussion on the affect that had not just on her, but on her art.

By 2009, Amber's raw, expressive works were exhibiting regularly along Australia’s East Coast.

By the mid-2010s, Wallis had consolidated a national profile.

Amber's work entered more collections and she was shortlisted for major prizes: Sunshine Coast Art Prize, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize and the Evelyn Chapman Art Award. In 2022, she won the inaugural Wollumbin Art Award and has been a finalist in numerous other awards including the Sir John Sulman Prize (twice), Bayside Painting Prize, Geelong Contemporary Art Award.

It was a really interesting conversation as we covered a lot of her life and art.

Head to the link in my bio to hear this episode.

Amber is represented in Brisbane by Jan Murphy Gallery

Images

1. AW by Kate Holmes

2. Women 2020 oil on linen 120x150

3. Soft figure 2025 oil on linen 135x120

4. Glowing house structure 2025 oil on linen 135x120

5. Orange warm protective watchers 2024 oil on linen 150x120

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 39 Justine Kong Sing

A conversation with Monique Watkins (AGNSW)

A few of Justine Kong Sing's works are on display at the new exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, Dangerously Modern, Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940. I had the privilege of sitting down with Monique Watkins to discuss this extraordinarily talented artist who has been largely overlooked in the Australian art canon.

.....My special guest today on the podcast is curator Monique Watkins, and this discussion took place in the Art Gallery of NSW. We were discussing the relatively unknown but brilliant, Justine Kong Sing.

Monique Watkins is a curator, writer and editor with experience working at leading cultural organisations in Sydney, including Kaldor Public Art Projects, White Rabbit Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She contributed an essay on Justine for the accompanying book to the exhibition Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940. Monique's research has helped pave the way for a wider appreciation of Justine's work.

Justine Kong Sing grew up in rural New South Wales during the 1870s and 1880s. As the daughter of a Hong Kong Chinese miner, she navigated the (I guess the polite way of saying it is...) complex social landscape of late 19th and early 20th century Australia ...all the while establishing herself as a skilled artist whose work would eventually gain recognition in major galleries across Australia and Europe. It’s a fascinating story often overlooked.

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

Instagram images

1. Me, 1912

watercolour on ivory

Dimensions

6.1 x 4.5 cm

2. Chums 1911

Materials used

watercolour on ivory

Dimensions

9.5 x 7.4 cm

3. Madame Sze, wife of the Chinese Minister
(c. 1914-1916)

watercolour on ivory

Measurements
9.5 × 7.7 cm

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 38 Robyn Sweaney

Robyn Sweaney is a contemporary artist who began exhibiting her work regularly from about 1992.

Her early work included still-life compositions, landscapes, and portraiture.

After relocating to northern New South Wales, she was inspired by her surrounds by painting houses. She could merge her philosophical interests with visual storytelling. And the paintings are beautifully reminiscent. But not in a ‘I prefer the old days’ sort of way. She just captures a moment.

More specifically... “Domestic dwellings divulge more than their mere exteriors, functioning as physical incarnations of the aesthetic, ideological and social structures influencing human behaviour. Informed by travel through familiar and unfamiliar rural and suburban places, Robyn finds that, ‘certain elements of place resonate an unexplainable reaction within me – something ignites deep within memory. The landscape is somehow opened up by the search itself and my response can reach beyond its visual appearance’.”

Her work has been described as emotional portraits of place, capturing the essence of lived experience through facades and fences.

Robyn has been involved in over one hundred group exhibitions. She was the winner of the Wynne Trustees’ Watercolour Prize, AGNSW (2019) and has been the finalist of many major awards including multiple times for the Wynne Prize, Salon Des Refusés, Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Prize, Mosman Art Prize, Paddington Art Prize, Moran Prize, Portia Geach Memorial Award and has also been a finalist in the Sulman Prize. Her work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia.

Head to the link in my bio for our podcast conversation

Images

RS image: Danny Sweaney, Oh Boy Agency

Dreams and Imaginings, 2024

acrylic on polycotton

40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm

Endless Blue, 2024

acrylic on polycotton

50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm

Out of the Blue, 2024

acrylic on polycotton

95 x 135 cm, 97.5 x 137.5 cm

Parts of the whole, 2025

acrylic on polycotton

50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm