Fiona O'Byrne

NOTES ON SPRING

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Fiona O’Byrne is an Australian artist who paints delicate still lives and portraits, using her immediate domestic environment to create works of quiet simplicity and classical harmony.

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Her subject matter focuses on interiors and familial life – vases with freshly picked flowers from her neighbourhood, portraits of family and friends.  There is a quiet intimacy in this domestic realism; she distils the essence of commonplace objects and highlights their beauty and poignancy.  Her paintings could be seen as meditations on daily life; a humble celebration of the ordinary.

Based in Melbourne, the artist grew up in regional Victoria, moving to the city to study Landscape Architecture.  Working as a Landscape Architect, as well as raising two children, she didn’t arrive to painting until her mid-thirties.

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Recently, after spending many years balancing her painting with work commitments, Fiona has taken the leap into practicing as a full-time artist.  She comments “I like the act of painting.  But even more, I like the act of looking.  I like looking at flowers, and carefully handmade vessels.  I like spending time noticing all the details, like the translucency of a petal, the curve of stem.  These days I try and spend my days noticing these things with patience, consideration and attention, in the hope that people might connect with or respond to the way I see the world”.