Carmel Byrne

Biography

My images are exclusively sourced from my own observational drawings. I run a drawing group in Sydney and source most of my figurative works, apart from portraits, from these sessions. Once I choose a drawing for a painting I work to capture & slightly exaggerate an expression in the model, or to subtly alter it to bring in an underlying expression that reveals a sub-conscious thought or feeling in the subject.

My process is layered from observation drawings translated to the expression and then formal aspects of painting.

Download Carmel’s Professional CV here.

Born in Sydney

2025

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.