The physical act of painting is the final outpouring of our personal observations, thoughts, experiences, life. A realisation best known through a kind of summary, a distillation. What we dream can never materialise as the subconscious has no form. The artistic process begins with the flickering of the imagination - thoughts that seem as fragile as gossamer gradually reveal themselves as a strong narrative. Continual painting for over thirty years has gifted me a backlog of imagery that plays within, it comes through my system and reveals itself again.
‘Further Afield' looks to places or areas other than those nearest or most obvious to me. To go further afield is to remove myself from the comfort zone, referring to not only the physical landscape but also the mindscape. In the last few years I came to embrace the act of taking an ingredient from the place I find myself standing in. I wondered, how can I capture this moment in time and form a bond to the earth, a connection of strength and depth?
After researching the soak-stain technique of New York’s Helen Frankenthaler, I found a passage to take my passion for watercolour painting and transform it onto canvas in a similar way that paralleled with my watercolours. Every work in this show was born while I was embedded in a particular landscape. Dragging canvases through muddy dam water and a mineral rich creek allowed pigments to penetrate the surface. Microscopic particles of the earth's pigments became captured into a creation forever. This raw under-being was then overstained with brighter pigments, breathing in more colour.
The early stage, that first session of a work, informs the direction the painting will eventually take. The first layer/imagery is always the most explosive and extremely physical. Cathartic yet meditative. The second and further layers of oil and wax at once juxtapose with the underlying forms and softer shape while enhancing and bringing forth the landscape lines that I have sought out.
The dance with a painting is very personal and emotive, it can last for weeks or months but finally the act concludes and I can present an exhibition that is a reflection of a segment of life I lived.
Sidney Nolan once said - "It's a curious sort of life in which you dream one image and paint another."
Belynda Henry May 2022
As far back as Belynda Henry can remember, the natural landscape has served as her major focus and inspiration. As a young arts student, her journals were filled with the shapes and forms of her environment - pared back to capture the essence of the natural world. Early in her career these sketches were realised in flat, almost two dimensional sculptural works, though painting always beckoned.
Working from her home in a quiet valley in Northern New South Wales, Henry’s practice incorporates plein air and studio-based painting, as well as a rugged process of drenching her canvases in freshwater that recalls American artist Helen Frankenthaler’s (1928-2011) ‘soak-stain technique’. Henry drags her unstretched canvases through the creek that runs through her property, before laying them out on the grass or concrete causeway to dry as she works in watercolour and pigment to capture her first impressions of the landscape. No longer damp, the canvases are returned to the studio and stretched so that Henry can continue to build composition, layering oil paint and wax as she reinterprets the landscape through a veil of memory and personal contemplation. The lack of illusionistic space enhances the textures and tonal colours in the work, alluding to vast sweeping treelines, gullies and waterways, to capture the atmosphere and energy of being immersed in, and embraced by nature.
Belynda Henry is an alumna of the Sydney College of the Arts (SCA), University of Sydney, completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1993. A finalist in multiple art awards including the Archibald Prize (2016), the Wynne Prize (2016, 2015, 2013) and the Paddington Art Prize (2018, 2017), she has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and internationally.
Carrie McCarthy 2022
Belynda Henry
Born 1973, Sydney
EDUCATION
1993
Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
'Further Afield', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
'New Works', (online) Australian Galleries
2021
‘New Works’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
'Belynda Henry', Woollahra Gallery, Redleaf, Sydney
'Clean Slate', Gruin Gallery, Los Angeles
2020
‘To Paint is to Love’, Australian Galleries
‘The Space Between’, Olsen Gruin, New York
2019
'Waterfalls and Waterholes’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
‘Reflections’, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2018
'Landscape Lines', Australian Galleries, Sydney
2017
'Wanderer', Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2016
'Distance', Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
'Living Colour', Olsen Irwin Works on Paper, Small Paintings and Sculpture, Sydney
2014
‘Jigsaw’, Anthea Polson Art, Main Beach, QLD
2012
‘Colour My World – New Sculptures and Paintings’, Richard Martin Art, Sydney
2010
'Overview’, Richard Martin Art, Sydney
2007
‘Shimmer’, Greenhill Galleries, Perth
‘Shadows of Nature’, Richard Martin Art, Sydney
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
‘Sydney Contemporary Presents 2020’, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair (online)
‘Navigating the line’ (online exhibition), Australian Galleries
2019
‘Australian Galleries: The Purves Family Business. The First Four Decades’, Book Launch and Group Exhibition, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
Graeme Drendel and Belynda Henry, 3:33 Art Projects, Clayton Utz, Melbourne
2018
‘A Painted Landscape’, Special Group Studios, Sydney
‘AWI 95TH Annual Exhibition’, Juniper Hall, Sydney
Paddington Art Prize (Finalist), Marlene Antico Fine Art, Sydney
Tattersall’s Club Prize (Finalist), Tattersall’s Club, Brisbane
2017
Paddington Art Prize (Finalist), Marlene Antico Fine Art, Sydney
2016
Archibald Prize (Finalist), Art Gallery of New South Wales
Wynne Prize (Finalist), Art Gallery of New South Wales
Gympie Regional Gallery, QLD
2015
‘Summer Christmas Show’, Olsen Irwin Sydney
Wynne Prize (Finalist), Art Gallery of New South Wales
2013
Wynne Prize (Finalist), Art Gallery of New South Wales
AWARDS
2004
Highly Commended, Open Selection, Wyong Art Show, NSW
2003
First Prize, Open Award, Wyong Art Show, NSW
2002
First Prize, Art scrawl, Landscape Award, Pokolbin, NSW
2000
Highly Commended, Sculpture Section, Wyong Festival of the Arts, NSW
COLLECTIONS
Elcom Credit Union, Sydney
P & O Resorts; Lizard Island, Bedarra Island
Private Collections in America, Isle of White, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, Taipei
Congratulations to Belynda Henry who has been selected as finalist in 2020 King’s School Art Prize.
Now in its 26th year, The King’s School Art Prize has been awarded to some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. The $20,000 acquisitive award is presented to the artist judged the best contemporary artwork, created by an artist resident in Australia. Entry is by invitation only, and the finalists are selected by an appointed Art Prize panel.
Belynda has been painting landscapes for over 20 years. Exhibiting continuously with over 30 solo shows to her name. Living at the end of a long lush valley on the Central Coast, New South Wales, which she drives through daily, she is constantly and automatically gathering views, flashes of moments and imagery. Photographing the landscape and making small sketches are also part of her daily practice. Forever seeking out new images, compositions and colours to use in new works.
Congratulations to Belynda Henry who is a finalist in the 2018 Paddington Art Prize with her work 'A Capricious Landscape'.
The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. Established in 2004 by Arts Patron, Marlene Antico OAM, this National prize takes its place among the country’s most lucrative and highly coveted painting prizes.
The prize encourages the interpretation of the landscape as a significant contemporary genre, its long tradition in Australian painting as a key contributor to our national ethos, and is a positive initiative in private patronage of the arts in Australia.
Painting the landscape is an ever changing process. “Capricious landscape” is attempting to capture the ever changing mood, the impulsive behaviour and the unpredictable beauty of Australia. - Belynda Henry
Congratulations to Belynda Henry who is a finalist in the 2017 Paddington Art Prize with her work 'The River Came To Me And It Took It All Away II'.
The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. Established in 2004 by Arts Patron, Marlene Antico OAM, this National prize takes its place among the country’s most lucrative and highly coveted painting prizes.
The prize encourages the interpretation of the landscape as a significant contemporary genre, its long tradition in Australian painting as a key contributor to our national ethos, and is a positive initiative in private patronage of the arts in Australia.
Congratulations to Belynda Henry who is a finalist in the 2016 Archibald Art Prize.
The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.
Henry painted Louise Olsen co-founded Dinosaur Designs in 1985. She is a creative director and designer at the company with her partner Stephen Ormandy and the daughter of artists John Olsen and Valerie Strong.
Henry says ‘I met Valerie over 25 years ago through a series of evening painting classes. Through Valerie, I was introduced to the work of John Olsen. Both have inspired me greatly as an artist. Watching from afar as Louise co-created Dinosaur Designs, I always felt a link to her even though I didn’t know her.'
The Wynne Prize is awarded annually for 'the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists’. Congratulations to Belynda Henry who is a finalist in the 2016 Wynne Art Prize.
Henry has a fascination with the Australian landscape which is the main inspiration for her work. Living at the end of a secluded valley on the NSW Central Coast, Henry is always subconsciously gathering the natural shapes, flashes of colour and composition of the mountains and trees that surround her.
