Skiers and snowboarders know the nostalgic mist of snow holidays gone and we know the emotions the site of snow on a distant hill can bring.
Australia has its own unique snow experience filled with snow gums and run down huts from bushranger days. We also have our own artists that capture our unique snow longings on canvas with mixed media.
Here’s four home grown artists worthy of hanging on your lodge walls so you can lose yourself in snow laden days with every glance or full blow gaze for hours from your couch.
Zoe Young
We’re big fans of this artist and have written about Zoe before. You may remember her as the name behind the portrait of Torah Bright chosen to hang in the Archibald Prize or for her 2018 exhibit, The Winter Soundtrack, a solo show at the Olsen Gallery. Young has won a plethora of respected art prizes including the Celebrity Portrait Prize for her portrait of fellow artist Ben Quilty in the Bendooley Estate Bowral Art Society competition.
Her portrait of Bruce Beresford at home in Birchgrove hung in the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Inaugural ‘Darling Portrait Prize’. Impressive.
“I grew up in the most beautiful of places surrounded by the most colourful of characters who embraced the beauty of living, the least I could do was push my paint to endeavour to tell the stories” – Zoe Young
Website: www.zoeyoung.com.au
Elizabeth Langreiter
Elizabeth Langreiter’s mixed media paintings are joyful delights. She took to the brush after a freak head injury in 2008 sparked a desire to paint and eight years later was discovered by a panel of experts including Ben Quilty and Roslyn Oxley. An invitation to participate in The Other Art Fair in Sydney followed, then a solo exhibition at Bowral’s The Milk Factory and in 2019 she went global with an exhibit at the Jinsan Gallery in Seoul.
Designed to make collectors smile with bright colours and evocative moments, her winter ski and summer beach art is now featured in private collections around the world and is represented by the Ode to Art at Raffles City Complex in Singapore and Artplex Gallery in West Hollywood and AAD Gallery in The Rocks in Sydney.
Website: www.elizabrethlangreiter.com
Brad Spalding
You may know him as the founder of Wildbrumby Schnapps but Brad Spalding is a celebrated artist in his own right. Often described as a ‘ski instructor-turned-artist-turned-entrepreneur’, Brad uses snow as a constant theme, depicting the vast and unforgiving nature of the alpine regions.
His paintings, which have formed part of a solo exhibition at Stanley Street Gallery in Sydney immerse viewers in the windswept and weather-beaten landscape of the Snowy Mountains. But skiers know his playful work including his “sou westerly” people a.k.a raincoat clad Aussie skiers also featured on the 2016 Thredbo Lift Pass.
He was awarded first prize in the Roof Top of Australia exhibition in 1994 and 1995, and his portrait of Stuart Diver was selected for the Archibald Salon in 2000.
Website: www.wildbrumby.com/our-story/brad-spalding-art
Justine Slough
Artist Justine Slough is based in the Southern Highlands and South Coast of New South Wales and you’ll find her work in Jindabyne’s Design and Detail store. We love her whimsical skiers lost in the powder and her quirky take on Aussie ski lessons and chairs.
“Raised in the Southern Highlands of NSW, growing up each year my brothers and I would be bundled into our parents VW beetle at 4am for our annual one day trip to the Snowy Mountains. I fell in love with the textures, the temperature, the landscape and beauty of the Alpine region and later spent some seasons working as a snowboard instructor amongst many other jobs I had to do for the privilege of living on the Mountain in Thredbo. Many years have passed but the impression and culture are deeply ingrained within me.”
Website: www.justineslough.com
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