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News
2023
Manning Regional Gallery, Taree
''Balancing on the Horizon'
Solo exhibiition 23rd March to 13th May
2022
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H.Ervin Gallery, Sydney
"Besties"
oil on board
32 x 26.5cm
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My painting 'Kind thoughts' was purchased by the Inverell Art Gallery for their permanent collection.
Kind thoughts
oil on board
40cm x 40cm
Naked and Nude Art Prize, Manning Regional Gallery, Taree, NSW
Hanging out
oil on board
33 x 33cm
This painting is from a series I have been working on, around humans being incognizant to the environmental degradation happening particularly in our oceans.My figure stands naked and exposed, just hanging around while the clam shell acts as a metaphor for journeys undertaken across water, to distant lands that once were pristine and untouched.
2021
Tan
oil on board
45 43cm
The notion of a good tan has been synonymous in contemporary Western culture with leisure, health, fashion and identity. Yet a shift in our climate perception could alter these cultural norms.
Working from life, I sought to convey a sense of vulnerability with the figure reclining, naked and exposed under the harsh intensity of the sun. Its power elucidated long after it has set.
2020
Archibald Portrait Prize, AGNSW
Portrait of Will
oil on board
28 x 22.5cm
Alex Thorby has painted Will Gollins, whom she describes as 'a young man from Liverpool, England, who arrived in Australia in April 2019, armed with high hopes and a chemistry degree. The last thing he expected was to fall in love with my daughter during a pandemic'.
For many young people, the pandemic encompasses a disheartening struggle, where displacement and uncertainty quell their self confidence and ambitions. I asked Will to sit, illuminated in the afternoon light waning into the glow of the computer. I worked quickly from life to capture him in a concentrated moment, as he undertook his daily search for employment.
Finalist North Sydney Art Prize
Birdbrain - Installation
ceramic and stockings
Bird Brain is an affectionate term that i call my children and this work is about their future. Most of us are now aware that our activities are changing Earths fundamental life support systems. Acting like fools and stealing the future generations of their health,wellbeing and longevity.
Day at the beach
oil on Redfern railway pattern mould
10 x 35cm
Day at the beach expresses concern for the plastic polluting our oceans. A happy sunburnt figure, foolishly wears a plastic bag on their head under the glaring heat of the Australian sun. The harsh light causing the eyes to squint, lurring their vision to what's really happening in our seas, while a guardian seagull hopelessly looks on.
2019
Finalist Doug Moran Portrait Prize
Portrait of Artist Dick Watkins
oil on canvas
Dick Watkins is one of the few remaining Abstract painters from the 1968 "The field" exhibition. He represented Australia in the 1985 XX111 Bienal de Sao Paulo in Brazil and in 1993 the National Gallery of Australia mounted an exhibition of his work "Dick Watkins"in context.
Dicks work expresses what it is to be human through the gesture and energy of his mark making. Working from life, I painted Dick sitting in his studio, surrounded by the tools of his trade and a halo of energy. I wanted to capture a feeling of how his presence, art and music fill's his studio.
His modest demeanour belies how significant a role he plays in Australian art. He is a quiet master who has been painting for over 60 years, never seeking the spotlight. Now in his 80's he is still painting as fervently and tirelessly as ever. Dick was a very gracious sitter. After more sittings than either than us care to think about, the artist in him would say "do whatever it takes".
Selected the Red Project
Underground Wonderland, CoaLoader Centre for Sustainability
Selected Stanthorpe Art Prize
Day at the beach 1
oil on wood 10 x 30xm
2018
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2017
Portrait Stories InTransit Art Space
Finalist North Sydney Art Prize
Transient
oil on canvas
30 x 30cm
Selected Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Study of Artist Dick Watkins
oil on board 26 x 33cm
Selected Mosman Art Prize
2016
Perception of Place
North Art Space
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2015
Selected North Sydney Art Prize
Flotsam and Jetsam
Installation
Selected North Sydney Art Prize
Flotsam and Jetsam
Installation
2014
Finalist Paddington Art Prize
Acacia
17x 17cm
Mixed media on board
2009
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Years Later 1989 - 2009
oil on canvas 1.3 x 1.5m
My painting Years Later shows two self portraits and my family. The first portrait shows me at 26 yrs just finished art school, the future unknown, rising up into the world. Behind, I painted allegorical figures representing truth, time, temptation and my guardian angel. The second portrait is of myself 20yrs later and what was then the unknown future, now here, sitting on the bed, with my children.
Finalist Mosman Art Prize
The Party
oil on board
50 x 50cm
2008
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Portrait of Kate oil on board
This is a portrait of my good friend Kate, who is also an artist. We have been friends since meeting at a party about 16 years ago and connected straight away. I wasn't really that happy with this painting, I felt I didn;t quite capture the expression of her that I wanted. Negotiating your way through painting people who are good friends can be a bit of a landmine, you want them to be happy, but unconsciously your intimate knowledge of them can influence the work to be something else.
2007
Selected Salon des Refuse
Laraine in her studio ( Laraine Deer)
oil on board 25 x 25cm
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Shrouded ( self Portrait)
oil on board 20 x 20cm
Originally, the idea for this painting came from a photo I saw in the newspaper of someone with a jacket over their head concealing their face from the media. I was drawn to the ambiguous nature of the image, which I felt could be read in many different ways, some very topical for our society. I myself, am only hiding from the housework.
2006
Finalist Waverly Art Prize, Open
Late night - self
oil on board
Finalist Waverly Art Prize, Drawing
Looking on, charcoal on paper
Commendation Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Laraine in her studio
oil on board
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Late Night - self
oil on board
2005
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Late night baby and self
oil on board 35 x 30cm
I painted this self portrait in bed with my baby, as that seemed to be where I was spending most of my time. Always trying to catch up on sleep, after late nights getting up to the baby. This tranquil image belies what really happened. The painting was going well, the baby asleep and I had just finished painting my face. He woke up and positioned him in the bed. In the moment I turned to grab my brushes, he managed to crawl and place his little hands onto the palette and proceed to cover the curtains, pillows and bedspread in red oil paint. I finished his portrait from memory.
2004
Finalists Portia Geach Portrait prize
Flowering - Self Portrait
oil on canvas 1.8 x 1.5m
My grandmother gave me these beautiful magnolias from her garden, which is always full of flowers. One night I was admiring their beauty and colour in the light and I knew I had to paint them. I went straight into the studio and decided to paint them over the top of what was initially a self portrait in a bedroom interior. I managed to paint the flowers that night. Then as each night passed it became a race to get them painted, as they were quickly going through their cycle frombuds to flowering, wilting and falling, leaving bare sticks. as my face peered out from within the flowers, I imaging they could be an analogy for the cycle of my life.
Diane
This is a portrait of Diane Mah a friend, fellow artist and art lecturer at Tafe. We met about 8 yrs ago through mutal friends at a Brian Dunlop painting workshop in Port Fairy. Diane is a great conversationalist with a terrific sense of humour, so our sittings were as much as a chance to chat as to paint. At first I wanted to paint her wearing red, a traditional Chinese colour but she told me that her mother dressed her in red so much as a child she never wants to wear it now, so we opted for her burgundy pyjamas instead. With this pose I tried to capture the way Diane composes her shoulders as she talks and I worked with a limited palette in colours that I felt reflect her personality.
Highly commended Waverly Art
Prize - Oil Prize
Night Dog, oil on board
Selected Waverly Art Prize -Drawing
Blue room, watercolour and charcoal on paper
2003
Winner Waverly Art Prize, Oil Prize
Night viewing
oil on board
Finalist Waverly Art Prize
Standing Figure 1
Finalist Mosman Art Prize
Bedroom Interior
oil on board
Still life with Proteas
oil on board
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Self Portrait - Night Viewing 11
oil on board
The idea for this painting came from walking around the block at night and seeing houses which are all in the dark except for a room that glows from the lightog the TV. The artificial light, flickering light and dark, blues and greens is what appealed to me and I imagined figures lying in their dark houses, light emanating from the television, illuminating their faces.
2002
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Under the wattle (Vicki White)
oil ob board
2000
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Self - the home front
oil on canvas 1.2 x 1m
Commended Waverly Art Prize Oil Prize
Asleep
oil on board
30 x30cm
1997
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Portrait of Sophie Dunlop
oil on board
1996
Highly Commended Waverly Art Prize Open section
The Stairwell
oil on board
Highly Commended Waverly Art Prize Oil section
The Stairwell 11
oil on board
Margaret Olley Retrospective Exhibition AGNSW
Portrait of Robin Amm
oil on board
154.7 x 120 cm
Selected Waverly Art Prize, Drawing
Dusk Riversdale,
charcoal and wash on paper
Insomnia with seagull,
watercolour
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait prize
Self portrait
oil on canvas
1.5m x 1.5m
1995
Alice Bale Art Award
Portrait of Fred Renton
oil on board
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Still life with Beetle
oil on board
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Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Portrait of Colin Friels
oil on canvas
2 x 3m
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Winner Waverly Art Prize, oil prize
Untitled
oil on board
Collection of Waverly Council
Finalists Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Self Portrait
ink and conte on paper
90 x 78cm
1994
Robin Amm Principal of Newtown High School
oil on board
154.7 x 120cm
Purchased AGNSW, Margaret Olley Trust
Commended Mosman Art Prize
Portrait of a young artist
oil on primed paper
1993
Selected Bathurst Art Purchase
Resident
oil and charcoal on canvas
165 x 152 cm
1992
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Frances Hansen
oil on board
3 x 1m
1991
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Self Portrait
oil on canvas
1989
Finalist Portia Geach Portrait Prize
Portrait of John Thorby ( the artists father)
oil on canvas
1.2 x 1.8m
© 2018 Alexandra Thorby.
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