Archibald Prize  winner Fiona Lowry’s intrigue with the Australian bush and the dark secrets it holds, along with the choice of her subject matter – vulnerable naked bodies airbrushed to form part of her aesthetic trademark once again becomes the nucleus of her creative efforts in producing a dreamscape of fantasy in a landscaped setting.

Here we have an artist who uses a skilled technique of airbrushing with a restricted palette of soft pastel colours to register her unique style that resonates with a dual paranoia of sensuality and menace. Often, her subjects appear to be falling over each other in a state of confusion or intimacy.

Lowry’s latest works, entitled THE TIES THAT BIND illustrates this confusion offering an emotional response to an accumulated trauma. Her painted landscapes are an attempt to articulate her ideas, associations and experiences that reflect on traumatic events or past historical injustice. The body plays a crucial role in the exploration of her ideas on love, sexuality, trauma and death.

In 2008 Fiona won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for her naked self-portrait cited in the Belanglo State Forest where the infamous backpacker murders occurred.

Her current paintings were made with the help of some friends at the Bouddi National Park on NSW Central Coast. Fiona’s fascination for the beauty of the Australian landscape as well as the dual presence of its lurking dangers, provides her the ideal backdrop to focus on her creativity and energy.

THE TIES THAT BIND is at Martin Browne Contemporary, 18 Hamden Street Paddington until 11 November 2018.

Featured image- Fiona Lowry with her son and her 2014 Archibald Prize winning entry, a portrait of Penelope Seidler.