About the artist: Lorel Curry
With Banksia cuneata 2008
Welcome to this site. Images of my Australian wildflower oil paintings may be viewed on the Painting Gallery page and my photos on the Photo Gallery page. I hope you enjoy them.
I live in Melbourne, Australia. In the mid-90s I exchanged my career in the health field for full-time training in art-making. I completed a visual arts diploma at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, then a degree in Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts. I explored printmaking, sculpture, life drawing, multi-media work and performance as well as painting.
More recently I've focused on portraiture - first of people and now, as it were, of the flowers of Australian native plants. I am often asked: “why flowers?”, “why Australian natives?”. I'm fascinated by the resilience of Australian wildflowers. The lush blooms of the tropical north aside, most Australian plants are adapted to the harsh conditions common in much of this country. The ancient soils they live in, long since leached of their trace elements, minerals and organic matter are 'some of the poorest ... in existence'.* Yet the intimate details of their flowers, when viewed in enlarged photographs, reveal seductive forms and colours. I love painting them.
As I complete native flower paintings I add images of them to the Painting Gallery page, so please visit every now and then. And do let me know if you would like to be included on the email list to view new work.
Making the paintings
On field trips I take digital photographs of plants in bloom using a macro lens and RAW format so the photos can be enlarged without loss of detail. After isolating an element of a chosen flower's image in my computer, I draw the outline onto canvas and begin to paint.
I find my subjects in my own neighbourhood, such as the nearby Maranoa Gardens which specialises in native Australian plants, as well as on field trips into the Australian bush. On a native plant tour conducted by the Wildflower Society of Western Australia in September 2007 I took many photos of a wide variety of fascinating plants. To these I continue to add images from my own state of Victoria, including the often unique flora of the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park.
In making these works I follow the tradition that values the artist's interpretation and the mark of the brush. My intention is not to achieve botanical illustration or exact representation.
Commissions
If you would like a work based on a particular colour or for a particular location, the FAQ page in this website has information on how I go about doing this, even if you are on the other side of the globe. Do email me if you are interested.
And ....
I'm quite proud of my business cards, so please email me if you would like me to mail one (or more!) to keep handy.
Please visit again to view works which are added over time. Contact me at lorel@aussieartist.com.au
* Eric Rolls, Australia. A biography. University of Queensland Press, 2000, p. 159.
Site and contents © Lorel Curry 2007