For twenty years I worked exclusively in abstract landscape painting as a means to explore the relationship between land and the elements that shape it – weather & climate. I was lead to study and process early tracks laid down as the path of least resistance.

In 2018 I began to extend my practice to figurative works based on drawing from life. The figurative works are a more psychocentric drafting of interior landscapes, scored and laid down by experiences and emotions, expressed in my work as gesture.

Download Carmel’s Professional CV here

Born & Raised in Sydney

2024

2023

2022

Exhibited:  40 x 40 Project, Wagner Contemporary, Domestic Mayhem, SAS Gallery, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, ephemeral strokes, SAS Gallery

2021

  • Finalist / Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney
  • Judge / Young Creatives Award 2021, Inner West Council, Sydney
  • Finalist / The Vincent Art Prize, Duckrabbit, Sydney
  • In The Grove / solo exhibition, Scratch Art Space for Art Month Sydney
  • Finalist / Adelaide Perry Art Prize for Drawing, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Sydney
  • Finalist / Online Salon, Lethbridge Small Scale Art Prize, Brisbane
  • Director & Artist at Scratch Art Space
  • Tutor for life drawing, colour theory and drawing beginners

Exhibited:  Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Finalist, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Adelaide Perry Art Prize for Drawing, Finalist, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Sydney / In The Grove, SAS Gallery, Sydney / The Vincent Prize, Duckrabbit Gallery, Sydney

2020

Exhibited:  Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Finalist, Campbelltown Arts Centre, The Vincent Prize, Duckrabbit Gallery, Sydney

2019

  • Presenter, My Art My Way 2019, Professional practise presentation on how to prepare documentation for exhibition submissions.
  • Adjudication Panel, The Inner West Urban Edge Art Prize, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney.
  • The Other Guy, Season II, Artwork hired for a character in Season II.
  • Travelled to Japan and USA.
  • Director of Scratch Art Space.
  • Tutored Drawing I for beginners, Drawing II Composition, Colour Mixing for Beginners, & Open Studio sessions at Scratch Art Space.

Exhibited:  Ephemeral Strokes, Group Exhibition, SAS Gallery / Inner West Contemporary Art Exhibition, EDGE Creative Trails Marrickville, SAS Gallery / IN/House 2019, Group Exhibition, SAS Gallery, Sydney.

2018

  • Director of Scratch Art Space
  • Tutored Drawing I for beginners, Drawing II Composition, Colour Mixing for Beginners, & Open Studio sessions at Scratch Art Space
  • Refocused onto own practice.

2017

  • Began a series of paintings around the concept of the Femme Fatale.
  • Wrote Draw II: Principles of Composition and Painting for Beginners Courses.
  • Wrote Life Drawing I and Life Drawing II: hands, feet and faces, both one day workshops.

Exhibited: Candour of Doubt, Group Exhibition, SAS Gallery / Drawn Together, Group Exhibition, SAS Gallery / IN House, Group Exhibition, SAS Gallery, Sydney.

2016

  • Established Scratch Art Space as a Proprietary Limited Company
  • Employed by Scratch Art Space Pty Ltd as Director, and continued to build an administrative and governance foundation for the business.
  • Employed a Gallery Assistant and Curator to help develop the Gallery exhibitions.
  • Devised and developed an education program for SAS.
  • Wrote Drawing I: Elements of Drawing, a course for absolute beginners.

Exhibited:  Harvest, Group Exhibition, SAS Gallery, Sydney

2015

  • Began a double Diploma in Marketing & Management at MnM institute which I didn’t finish because the business was taking off.
  • Continued to build up the marketing and administration for the Scratch Art Space art workshops & gallery.
  • Wrote Colour Startup, a colour mixing for painters workshop.

2013-14

  • Focussed on building a viable artist-run business and continued to develop and grow social networks and marketing strategies.
  • Introduced one-day art workshops to Scratch Art Space.
  • Started up a life drawing group, Drawn Together.
  • My practise that had focussed on landscapes now shifted to figurative. To manage the transition a strategy to paint the figure as landscape was applied that eventually transmuted to focus on the emotional landscape of the human condition.

Exhibited: Pendulum: Actions of Gravity and Acquired Momentum, collaborative installation with Melissa Silk, SAS Gallery / Marrickville Photography Prize, Highly Commended, Sydney / SAS Stockroom Show, SAS Gallery / Three Circles, SAS Gallery / Census, Solo Exhibition, photography, SAS Gallery, Sydney.

2011-12

  • Re-branded Tooth Studios as Scratch Art Space (SAS) and installed an art gallery.
  • The inaugural exhibition DeTour, a collaboration between myself and SAS Artist-in-Residence Joshua Rampage (USA), opened in September 2012.
  • Selected for the Gallery Speed Dating Event, Art Month Sydney

Exhibited: DeTour, Collaborative installation with Joshua Rampage, SAS Gallery, Sydney / Ten Years Inside Out, Curator & participating artist, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney / Postcards from the North, ESP Gallery, Sydney.

2009-10

  • Returned to MFA studies.
  • Research visit to Sean Scully’s studio, New York City.
  • Graduated in June 2010 with an exhibition Forecast, a series of works expressing the cycle of weather and landscape and their influence on the development of tracks & roads in Sydney.
  • Presented a paper Emergence of Modern Abstract Art and the Concept of Nonduality, Science & Nonduality Conference, San Francisco

Exhibited: Forecast, MFA solo exhibition, KUDOS Gallery, Sydney / Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, Kudos Gallery.

2008

  • Marriage dissolved.
  • Deferred study for one year.

Exhibited:  Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney

2007

  • Returned to Sydney to undertake a Masters in Fine Art (Research) degree at UNSW Art & Design.
  • Awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship.
  • Continued to administrate and manage Tooth Studios, Sydney.

Exhibited: Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize / At The Vanishing Point Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney / Harmony with White, Sabaai Gallery, Sydney.

2004–06

  • Moved to Bermuda, administrated Tooth Studios remotely with a Studio Manager on the ground in Sydney.
  • Painted full-time on New York Series Satellite & Manhattan Flora, and Two World’s Clash.   A series of oil paintings gleaning data and information conflated with historical research, based on tracks and roads on the landscape.
  • Travelled to Cuba, Europe, and multiple visits to New York City.

Exhibited:  Migration Glass Eye, Brooklyn, New York / Bermuda Biennial, Bermuda National Gallery / Field of Vision: New York, The Lab Gallery, New York, USA / Computer Generated Art, Bermuda Society of the Arts / Conceptual Art Show, Bermuda Society of the Arts.

2002-03

  • Lived in New York City for six months and undertook a three month internship assisting the Gallery Manager, at Artists Space, Soho.
  • Submitted a review of the 2002 Whitney Biennial for Singaporean magazine, Vehicle: contemporary visual arts journal.
  • Returned to Sydney and set up Tooth Studios in Marrickville, Sydney.
  • Employed at NAS for the HSC Extension Course to teach Life-Drawing to selected NSW Visual Art Students.

Exhibited: Blake Touring Exhibition / Art on the Rocks, ASN Gallery, Sydney / Boxed ii, PKW Gallery, Singapore / NAP Annual Exhibition, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, USA.

2000-01

  • Graduated with First Class Honours and moved to Singapore.
  • Set up a home-studio working in timber assemblages.
  • Became a member of the Plastic Kinetic Worms collective in Singapore.
  • Held first solo show, Funk, in Singapore.
  • Travelled to Malaysia, Indonesia, Europe, and Yemen.

Exhibited: FUNK, PKW Gallery, solo show, Singapore / The Pig Show, PKW gallery, Singapore / Worm Festival II, PKW Gallery, Singapore / Blake Prize, S H Irvin Gallery, Sydney.

1997-99

  • Secured a sessional teaching job at Kempsey TAFE for one semester.
  • Moved to Canberra and studied for a Bachelor of Visual Art (Hons) with advanced standing.
  • Employed for two years a sessional teacher at the National Institute of Design, Canberra.

Exhibited: Dobell Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of NSW / In-Between, Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree / Festival of Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Sydney / Canberra School of Art Drawing Prize / The Drawing Show, Artspace71, Canberra / 50 Years Now: Field Studies in the Snowy Mountains, Cabramurra Community Hall.

1995-96

  • Married and moved to the Mid North Coast.
  • Established a studio practice equipped for timber assemblages.
  • Helped organise the inaugural Wauchope Arts Festival.

Exhibited: Waverley Art Prize / Logan Art Award, Brisbane / Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney / NAS Alumni Exhibition, Sydney / Essential Assets, The Studio Gallery, Bellingen.

1993-1995

  • Secured a studio lease with three colleagues at Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney.
  • Employed part-time casual.

Exhibited: Art for AIDS Exhibition / Waverley Art Prize / Portia Geach Memorial Award Exhibition / Alice Prize / Warringah Art Prize.

1990-92

  • Studied full-time at the National Art School.
  • Graduated with a Diploma in Painting with work that are primarily recycled timber assemblage reliefs.

1987-89

  • Back in Sydney I was employed as a contractor at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research
  • Studied evenings, three subjects for a Certificate in Fine Art at the National Art School (NAS).

1984-86

  • Lived in Midhope House a housing co-operative in Kings Cross, London, temping and bar work.
  • Travelled to New York, Los Angeles, and four months through Mexico and Guatemala.

1983-84

Travelled through Central Australia to Darwin, onto Asia & Europe.

  • Travelled through Central Australia to Darwin, onto Asia & Europe.
  • Skied & worked a winter season in Val D’Isere, France.

1982-83

  • Employed to transfer data from an analogue accounting system to a mainframe computer, Sydney.

1980-81

  • Skiing, walking & working in Queenstown, New Zealand.