'Wattle & Glass' by Fiona O'Byrne

FORAY is pleased to present the exquisite works of fine oil artist Fiona O’Byrne .

• Oil on linen original artwork.
  
• Framed in Victorian Ash.
• Measures 27 x 27cm
  
• Shipping flat fee $35 added in cart

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Fiona O’Byrne is an Australian artist who paints delicate still lives and portraits, using her immediate domestic environment to create vignettes of quiet simplicity and classical harmony. Employing mainly traditional methods of oil on canvas overlaid on panelboard, the artist creates rich tonal paintings that are marked by sparse, carefully arranged compositions.

There is a quiet intimacy in this domestic realism; Fiona distils the essence of commonplace objects and highlights their beauty and poignancy. Her artworks could be seen as meditations on our 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 at Melbourne University.  Working as a Landscape Architect, as well as raising two children, she didn’t arrive to painting until her mid-thirties. Between 2014 and 2019 she studied under the portrait artist Lee Machelak, honing her technical skills in painting.

The artist comments that: “I like to evoke a world of simplicity and harmony, to make people feel calm and appreciate the beauty in the everyday.  It is possible for me to paint the same pot or bowl for the third or fourth time.  What matters is not so much the variety of the subjects but the intensity with which something is experienced, how it is perceived visually."

Refreshingly modest and contemplative, Fiona O’Byrne’s artworks offer the viewer a reflective experience, an opportunity to slow down from our busy lives and let our eyes rest and calmly observe.  In a social media whirl of Instagram and Tik Tok, where images constantly shout ‘look at me’, her paintings gently draw you in and teach you how to look closely and quietly with your heart and mind.

Words by Victoria Hynes