A Painter’s Painter

• Ann Cape

  Ann Cape is a painter, sculptor, and art teacher, and has been active in the Australian art scene for over 40 years.  She has taught at the Royal Art society, NSW from 1999-2016, the Willoughby Art Centre NSW in 1998, various art schools and TAFE colleges, and has given numerous workshops in Sydney and country centres.

  Ann has won multiple awards and is in the collection of various Australian institutions.

• Sophie Cape

  Sophie Cape, born 1975 in Sydney, lives and works in Sydney. Since graduating from the National Art School in 2011, Sophie Cape has become recognised as a contemporary Australian artist. Prior to her art career, Cape was a distinguished athlete in both downhill skiing and sprint cycling for Australia. After years of sport-related injuries, she redirected her focus into art. Cape’s practice engages the body and the natural environment, exploring themes of survival, decay, and the human condition. She has held multiple solo exhibitions at OLSEN Gallery, Sydney, and won several prestigious art prizes, including the Portia Geach Memorial Painting Award. She has also been awarded residencies in Paris, Rome, Austria, Poland, Hong Kong, China, Italy, and throughout Australia. In 2020, she was featured on Australian Story and is currently represented in numerous corporate and private collections both locally and internationally. 

• Kevin Connor

  Kevin Connor, born 1932 Sydney. Lives and works Sydney. Connor has also lived and worked in London, Paris, New York, Spain, and Egypt, in addition to extensive travels across Europe, the USA, and the Middle East for painting and study.  

  His work has largely focused on the life of the city and its people. He has held 71 solo exhibitions, and in 1989, a survey/retrospective exhibition of his work from 1947 to 1988 was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (touring). Other significant exhibitions include a survey of his Sydney Harbour paintings (1988), portraits (1988), and a group exhibition, Expressive Figuration, with two other artists, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1996, touring). In 2006, an exhibition of his work, Sketchbooks, Drawings, and Studies for Painting and Sculpture, was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. A survey exhibition of his paintings, drawings, and bronzes, The Forever One Day, was held at the Orange Regional Gallery in 2018. 

  His awards include the Archibald Prize (1975 and 1977), Sulman Prize (1991 and 1997), and Dobell Drawing Prize (1993 and 2005). He was a Harkness Fellow (1966-68), served as a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1981-87), and was appointed a Fellow of the National Art School in 2016.

• Lucy Culliton

  Lucy Culliton, born 1966 in Sydney. Lives and works Bibbenluke, New South Wales. Culliton is known for her landscape and still life paintings, capturing the light and moods of her surroundings. Culliton studied fine art at the National Art School, graduating in 1996. She joined the Ray Hughes Gallery in 1999 and is currently represented by King Street Gallery on William. Culliton has been a regular finalist in the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman Prizes. Culliton’s work is part of major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House in Canberra, and private collections across Australia. 

  Culliton’s exhibitions focus on her surroundings and rural way of life at her property in Bibbenluke, on the far south coast of New South Wales. Her work features images of home interiors, her garden, the countryside, farm shows, and her animals (Culliton is a committed animal rescuer). More recently, she has been a regular Artist in Residence at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, painting the animals, country exhibits, and characters. 

  In 2014, Mosman Art Gallery hosted a survey exhibition, Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Lucy Culliton, featuring work from across her career. 

  Culliton has won numerous awards, including the Mosman Art Prize in 2000 for Still Life/White Ground, the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize (1999) and the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2006). Her work is held in prominent collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland University Art Museum, and Macquarie Bank. 

• Elisabeth Cummings

  Elisabeth Cummings, born 1934 Brisbane, lives and works in Wedderburn, New South Wales. 

  Cummings’ career spans over six decades. Cummings studied at the National Art School in Sydney and received the AGNSW Travelling Art Scholarship in 1958, which helped shape her early development. 

  Her work is known for its bold use of colour and distinctive mark-making, particularly in her depiction of the Australian landscape. Cummings has long been an intrepid traveler, regularly painting smaller “en plein air” works in the Australian bush, alongside larger studio works. While she finds inspiration in the wider Australian landscape, much of her work draws from her time at Wedderburn, where she has lived and worked since the early 1970s. Cummings was instrumental in establishing an artist community there with fellow artists Roy Jackson and John Peart, thanks to a generous land donation from Barbara and Nick Romalis. 

  Cummings’ extensive career includes notable exhibitions such as her 2023 retrospective, Radiance, The Art of Elisabeth Cummings, at the National Art School in Sydney, and the 2022 solo exhibition Through the Window at King Street Gallery. Her work has been included in several major group exhibitions, including Know My Name at the National Gallery of Australia in 2022. 

  Elisabeth Cummings received the National Art School Fellowship, which acknowledges achievements and outstanding contributions to the visual arts community in Australia. 

  Cummings’ work is held in collections across Australia, including the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the National Gallery of Australia. She continues to paint from her Wedderburn studio, producing both intimate and expansive works that remain important to the Australian art scene.

• Michael Esson

  Michael Esson, born in 1950 in Scotland, lives and works in Sydney. His practice spans a broad range of visual arts, with a focus on the human figure through drawing. He began his studies at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, continued at Edinburgh College of Art, and completed his education at the Royal College of Art in London. 

  Esson’s artistic practice has centered on the study and representation of the human figure, focusing particularly on anatomy, mortality, and identity. In 1993-94, he was the first artist-in-residence at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, where he explored the intersection of art and medical science, with an emphasis on the structure of the human body. 

  In addition to his artistic work, Esson contributes to medical education by developing courses for plastic surgeons, continuing his research into the relationship between art and medicine. His work in this area has shaped both his artistic practice and his educational pursuits. 

• Chris Gentle

  Chris Gentle, born 1939 Chichester, England. Lives and works in Sydney. Gentle studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and lithography at the West Sussex College of Art and Art Education at London University. He taught for two years in London, then, in 1965, travelled through Europe, the West Indies, the United States, and Canada before settling in Australia. He began teaching at the National Art School in 1969 and was appointed Senior Lecturer in Art at the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education in 1975. From 1977 to 1986, he was the founding director of the Ivan Dougherty Gallery.  

  Over the past five decades, Gentle has travelled widely across Australia, observing and analysing the landscape, its beauty, and fragility. His interest has focused on the processes of nature at work, decay and renewal, and the evidence of time passing. In his studio, the practice of drawing and exploring the materiality of paint and colour brings him the most pleasure. 

  He has written numerous articles and essays on art and artists, including “Contemporary German Drawings,” Art and Australia, November 1983, and “Reflections and Metaphor,” Art and Australia, March 1986. He was one of three authors of the monograph on Alun Leach-Jones, published in 1988 by Craftsman House and reprinted in 1995. 

  Gentle has had more than 40 exhibitions to his credit and participated in various artist-in-residence programs, including at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney and Hill End. 

  His work is held in many private and public collections in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Asia, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, state galleries, Artbank, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Wollongong. 

• Chick Gordon

  Chick Gordon, born 1929 in Newcastle lives and works in Mosman. Largely self-taught, she has been painting for over fifty years. 

  Known for her vivid use of colour, Gordon captures the forms, light, and moods of Australia’s landscapes, from deserts to coastal regions. Her work combines realism and abstraction, focusing on the interplay of light, shadow, and texture. 

  She works across still life, landscape, and portraiture, and has travelled extensively through Australia and Europe, often with fellow artists. These experiences inform her focus on the physical and atmospheric qualities of the environment. 

  Gordon’s work has been exhibited widely in Australia and is held in private collections internationally. 

• Peter Kingston

  Peter Kingston (1943–2022), born in Sydney, lived and worked in Lavender Bay, Sydney. Kingston is a celebrated Australian landscape painter. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales in 1965 and later tutored in architecture at the University of Sydney. He held over 35 solo exhibitions since 1978 in Sydney and New York. A survey exhibition of his work, titled Harbourlights, was toured by Manly Gallery in 2004, coinciding with the release of his first monograph. Kingston has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including the Dobell Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1993 to 2000, the Wynne Prize from 1995 to 2003, and the Sulman Prize from 1998 to 2001. In 2019, he participated in the significant exhibition Bohemian Harbour: Artists of Lavender Bay, alongside fellow artist and friend Brett Whiteley, at the Museum of Sydney. Earlier this year the State Library had a major exhibition of his works. 

  Kingston has exhibited with Australian Galleries since 1993. Kingston’s work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the State Library of New South Wales, the Museum of Sydney; several regional galleries; and internationally by the Bibliothèque de la Ville, Belgium; Costen Library, Los Angeles; and the National Film Library in Tokyo. In 2019, The Beagle Press published the artist’s second monograph, Peter Kingston, written by Barry Pearce. 

• Judy Lane

  Judy Lane, born 1942  Sydney, lives and works Mosman. Lane studied at the Julian Ashton Art School and spent the following 30 years travelling, painting, and teaching. Much of her early work was created in France, where she both painted and taught. 

  Lane has held over 40 exhibitions showcasing her paintings and more recently, ceramics. Her work is represented in numerous private collections both in Australia and overseas. She has also participated in several notable art awards, including The Portia Geach Memorial Award, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Mosman Art Prize, The Wynne Prize, and the Archibald Salon de Refusé. Her career reflects a commitment to both creating and sharing art.

• Kerrie Lester

  Kerrie Lester (1953–2016) lived and worked in Sydney. Lester was an Australian portrait artist renowned for her distinctive style and frequent appearances as a finalist in the Archibald Prize, where she was a finalist 16 times. Born in Sydney, she studied fine arts at the National Art School and Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education. Her first solo exhibition in 1976 marked the beginning of a successful career in painting. 

  In 1998, Lester won the Packing Room Prize at the Archibald for her Self-Portrait as a Bridesmaid, a playful comment on her repeated near-misses in the competition, despite being a finalist on many occasions. Though she ceased entering the Archibald Prize in 2012, she continued to create portraits of notable figures, such as Margaret Fink, Fred Hollows, and Cathy Freeman, which were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. 

  A finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award nine times, Lester was also a regular exhibitor in the Wynne and Sulman Prizes. In 2011, she won the Mosman Art Prize for her painting Out on a Limb. Diagnosed with leukemia in 2014, she passed away on April 5, 2016, leaving behind a legacy in Australian portraiture painting.

• Euan Macleod

  Euan Macleod, born 1956 Christchurch, New Zealand. Lives and works in Sydney. Macleod is known for his expressive landscapes and figurative works. He completed a Certificate in Graphic Design at Christchurch Technical College in 1975 and a Diploma in Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Canterbury in 1979. Macleod moved to Sydney in 1981. Alongside his artistic practice, he taught painting at the National Art School in Sydney. 

  Macleod’s work primarily focuses on landscapes, often incorporating a lone, anonymous figure that represents both the artist’s self-portrait and a universal experience of existential struggles. His style is described as a blend of expressionism and symbolism, with a characteristic dense, textured, and sculptural use of paint.  

  Throughout his career, Macleod has held more than 100 solo exhibitions and participated in over 200 group shows. He has exhibited with Niagara Galleries in Melbourne, Watters Gallery in Sydney, and Bowen Galleries in Wellington. He is currently represented by King Street Gallery in Sydney. His work is held in significant collections across Australia, including the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, and Heide Museum of Modern Art. Internationally, Macleod’s paintings are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Chartwell Collection in New Zealand. 

  Macleod has won numerous prestigious awards, including the Archibald Prize in 1999 and the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2006. In 2021, he won the Dobell Drawing Prize for his pastel-on-paper work Borderlands. 

  He was awarded the National Art School Fellowship in 2024 in recognition of his achievements and outstanding contributions to the visual arts community in Australia.

• Daniel Pata

  Daniel Pata born 1952 in Sydney, lives and works in Sydney and France. Pata is known for his landscape paintings that explore the extremes of the environment. In 2021, he was a finalist in the Wynne Prize for landscape painting and also a finalist for the Dobell Prize. Throughout his career, Pata has regularly been featured in major art awards, including the NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, the Dobell Prize for Drawing, and the Kedumba Drawing Award, among others. 

  Pata’s work predominantly focuses on the varied and often harsh landscapes of Australia, ranging from coastal areas to the arid regions of the outback, such as Mutawintji, the Flinders Ranges, and the MacDonnell Ranges. He often paints “en plein air,” capturing his immediate response to the environment by working directly from the subject. This enables him to respond to the light, shade, and colours to describe these places.  

  In addition to his Australian work, Pata regularly travels to Europe, particularly France, where he draws inspiration from the techniques and pictorial elements of Paul Cézanne. These influences have impacted the direction of his work. As he explains, “I respond to the differences of light, shade, and colour, giving distinction to various places.” 

  Alongside his artistic practice, Pata was a lecturer in drawing at the National Art School. 

  Pata’s work is held in significant public and private collections both in Australia and internationally. Notable institutions include the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the Gosford Regional Gallery, Sturt University in NSW, and St Peter’s College, Oxford University in the UK, among others. 

• Susan Rothwell

  Dr. Susan Rothwell AM, born in 1948 in Wahroonga, Sydney, lives and works in Sydney. Rothwell was educated at SCEGGS Redlands and later earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney. 

  In 1974, Susan became the Director of Susan Rothwell Architects Pty Ltd and has worked as an architect ever since, specialising in residential houses and apartments. She is a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and earned an Advanced Certificate in Urban Horticulture from Ryde TAFE in 1993. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture from Sydney University. 

  As a practicing artist, Rothwell is represented by Justin Miller Art and has held numerous exhibitions. She has been a finalist twice in both the Archibald Prize and the Portia Geach Memorial Portrait Prize. 

  Rothwell has contributed to various boards and institutions throughout her career. She served as a foundation board member for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Historic Houses Trust, each for nine years. She was also a board member for the North Foundation for seven years and is currently the Chair of the National Art School. 

  In recognition of her significant contributions, Rothwell was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2022. 

  “Ann and I are friends and we love painting together… we are very efficient painters and enjoy each other’s chatter as painting is usually a lonely pursuit.”

• Anita Taylor

  Anita Taylor RWA [Hon.] is an award-winning artist, curator and educator, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1987; was Artist-in-Residence at Durham Cathedral [1987-88]; Cheltenham Fellow in Painting [1988-89]; Artist-in-Residence, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service & National Art School [2004]. 

  Taylor has exhibited internationally with her latest solo exhibitions in Türkiye, United Kingdom, Australia and Spain. 

  With an extensive career in higher education, she has been a Professor of Fine Art [since 2002], is currently Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee [since 2019], and was previously Executive Dean, Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University [2013-19]; Director & Chief Executive Officer, National Art School, Australia [2009-13]; Dean, Wimbledon College of Art & Director, The Centre for Drawing, University of the Arts London [2006-09]; Vice Principal, Wimbledon School of Art [2004-06]. Public collections include: Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, USA; Victoria & Albert Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum; Royal West of England Academy; Jerwood Foundation; National Art School, Australia.

• Ann Thomson

  Ann Thomson, born 1933 Brisbane, lives and works in Sydney. Thomson is a recognised contemporary Australian painter. Known for her vibrant, expressive compositions, she was described by the late Edmund Capon as “one of the most interesting and intuitive artists in Australia today.” 

  Rather than replicating a scene or landscape, Thomson’s work captures the energetic act of creation itself. Her approach reflects a dynamic relationship between gesture, surface, and space. 

  Since graduating from the National Art School in 1962, Thomson has balanced teaching at leading Australian art institutions with numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Australia and internationally. Her work Australia Felix was the centerpiece of the 1992 World Expo in Seville. Her sculptures have been described by David Malouf as “simply themselves and free,” much like the artist herself. 

  In 2015, Thomson was honoured with a Fellowship by the National Art School, Sydney, followed by a major survey of her work. In 2024, an extensive survey exhibition curated by Terence Maloon was presented at S.H. Ervin Gallery, with a second iteration shown at Orange Regional Gallery in 2025. 

  At 90, Thomson is a pioneer, earning the respect of critics and curators, and receiving major prizes and international commissions for large-scale paintings and sculpture. Her work is held in significant Australian collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Queensland Art Gallery, as well as internationally in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, and the Villa Haiss Museum, Germany.

• Guy Warren

  Guy Wilkie Warren AM (16 April 1921 – 14 June 2024) was born in Goulburn, New South Wales, and lived and worked in Sydney. Warren was a painter best known for his landscape and portrait work. He won the Archibald Prize in 1985 with his painting Flugelman with Wingman. Warren’s work has been featured as a finalist in the Dobell Prize, and he was awarded the Trustees Watercolour Award at the Wynne Prize in 1980. 

  Warren served in the Australian Army during World War II from 1941 to 1946, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. His military service, particularly his time in New Guinea and Bougainville Island, significantly influenced his artistic practice. After the war, he studied at the National Art School in Sydney and later traveled to England, where he continued to develop his artistic practice. 

  Warren has had many solo exhibitions. Notable shows include Genesis of a Painter: Guy Warren at 95 at S.H. Ervin Gallery in 2016, featuring works from the 1950s and 60s, and two centenary exhibitions in 2021: From the Mountain to the Sky at the National Art School and Hills and Wings at the University of Wollongong. Warren also won the Mosman Art Prize in 1950 and 1965. 

  In addition to his own work, Warren modeled for portraits, including for artists participating in the Archibald Prize. In 2004, he sat for Ann Cape’s Figure within the Landscape: Guy Warren, which was exhibited in the Archibald Prize. In 2021, he was the subject of Peter Wegner’s winning portrait in the same competition, coinciding with his 100th year. 

  A fellow of the National Art School, Warren was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1999 and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2014 for his significant contributions to the visual arts. He held an honorary Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong and an honorary Doctorate of Visual Arts from the University of Sydney. He passed away on 14 June 2024, at the age of 103.