Interview With Artist CloseUp Magazine

I was recently invited to take part in an interview with Artist Closeup / Circle Arts, reflecting on the role of the artist in contemporary society and how that role continues to evolve.

As an Australian landscape painter, my work is deeply connected to atmosphere, weather, stillness and the emotional presence of place. These questions feel closely tied to my own studio practice, not only in terms of how I paint, but why I continue to return to landscape as a subject.

For me, painting offers a way of slowing down. In a world increasingly shaped by technology, speed and artificial intelligence, the handmade mark carries a different kind of weight. It holds hesitation, memory, feeling and human presence.

Throughout history, artists have served many roles. They have created religious imagery, recorded moments in time, responded to social change, challenged power, and offered new ways of seeing the world. That role continues today, although the context has changed.

I believe there will always be artists whose work speaks directly to political and social issues. That form of expression remains vital. Art can illuminate injustice, question accepted narratives, and open conversations that might otherwise remain closed.

My own work speaks more quietly.  Through oil paintings of clouds, weather, open land and distant horizons, I am interested in the emotional atmosphere of landscape. I paint that pause after weather, the stillness within distance, and the sense of resilience held in the land.

In an age where algorithms can generate images instantly, painting remains an act of attention. It asks both the artist and the viewer to stay with something longer.  The surface of a painting carries time, touch, uncertainty and decision in a way that cannot be separated from the human hand.

I see the future role of the artist not as something diminished by technology, but as something made even more necessary. Artists can remind us to slow down, to look more closely, and to reconnect with what feels human, fragile and real.

You can read the full interview with Artist Closeup / Circle Arts here:  interview