painting – Lorna Grear

The Goulburn Art Award

Announcement and official opening event: 6pm Friday 19 June 2026

Finalist exhibition dates: Friday 19 June – Saturday 18 July 2026 Goulburn Regional Art Gallery

Civic Centre
184 Bourke Street
Goulburn NSW 2580
Australia
02 4823 4494

E: artgallery@goulburn.nsw.gov.au
P: 02 4823 4494

Green Swamp no. 1, acrylic on board, 30 x 27 cm, framed, 2026

Artist Statement for Green Swamp

My painting, titled, Bannaby Green Swamp is the first painting in an exploration of landscape as a wild and romantic place. This is an area I’ve walked for years- it’s a remote bushland place near Taralga where I walk through blackberries and scratchy bushes to reach. I’ve been walking this area for 20 years and have constantly thought about painting this area. It is green and swampy with ferns- a very different type of bush compared to its surrounds. It’s remote and untouched. There are wild animals too, wild pigs, many birds, wombats and kangaroos so the space never feels totally safe – there’s a surreal relationship with the bush. It is a shared space. This painting is reflective of my whole practice when I’m working with landscape. I like to feel the space around me as a three- dimensional space and translate this environment onto a flat surface. Like a puzzle. I love that tension between flatness and render. This is the first painting I’ve made in preparation of a concentrated series about Green Swamp.

Artist bio- Lorna Grear

In November 2025, Lorna held her 4th solo exhibition at Flinders Street Gallery, Sydney; titled Close To Home. The exhibition presented paintings that were painted over 2 years and over 4 seasons during a sabbatical and featured landscapes from Taralga and Bannaby, in the Southern Highlands where she lives.

During her artist practice, Lorna has held numerous solo shows including at the The infamous Tailor Room Gallery, Sydney ( curator Lee Frost) between 1998 – 2003, Peloton in 2005, 2009 and 2011, Mop Projects in 2013 and Airspace Projects Inc. in 2019, 2018 and 2016. Other galleries include, Imperial slacks, Herringbone, SNO, Phatspace, Zitlip and Firstdraft. Her work has been exhibited in the Portia Geach Memorial Prize, the Paddington Art Prize, The Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, The Fishers Ghost Art Award, Mosman Art Prize and the Liverpool Art Prize. She is a graduate of both Sydney College of the Arts and The National Art School. Lorna currently teaches art history and painting at TAFE NSW, where she also acted as Head Teacher of St George College of Fine Arts and The Ceramic Design Studio, Gymea.

Selected life drawings 2022- 2024

All works, acrylic or gouache or pencil on archival board. Works start from $800 unframed. Please enquire Lornagrear@hotmail ↩︎

Close To Home

Documentation of Close To Home exhibition at Flinders Street Gallery, Sydney. 29 November – 20 December 2025

Images by Docqment or @docqment on instagram.

Lorna Grear Studio

*Fierce 42* x 32 cm acrylic on board framed
available $700
Image Credit: Docqment.

Two Kinds of yellow 150 x 150 cm acrylic on canvas
available $3800
Credit: Docqment

Delineations II

I have 4 small works in the group show with Marina Finlay, Kevin McKay, Daniel McDonald, Lisa McKimmie, Fiona Somerville, Nick Swann & Paul Thomas

Image: Lorna Grear, Storm I, 20 x 15 cm, framed, acrylic on board.

FLINDERS STREET GALLERY
Opening drinks 4 – 6 pm. Saturday 26th April

The exhibition runs until Saturday 10th May 2025 Gallery hours: 11am – 6pm, Wed – Sat or by appointment
61 Flinders Street Surry Hills, NSW, 2010 Phone 61 2 93805663

info@flindersstreetgallery.com

http://www.flindersstreetgallery.com

Storm II 20 x 15 cm, acrylic on board, framed, 2025

Storm III 20 x 15 cm, acrylic on board, 2025

Storm IV 20 x 15 cm, acrylic on board, 2025

Tea Tree Haze – Glebe Art Show 2023

My painting, Tea Tree Haze was painted during a long stint in the bush. It was just before Spring and there was a lot of rain around- I could smell the tea tree everywhere. As the water dries- a mist forms above the tea tree bush- my painting is a memory of this.

I always love painting slightly away from the subject as it allows for a poetic interpretation of painting, filled with personal rhythms and imaginative clusters. It’s like a dream.

Tea Tree Haze 76 x 91 cm, acrylic on canvas. Drop Shadow series

The 2023 Glebe Art Show will be held from the 18th to the 22nd of October at the Tramsheds, 1 Dalgal Way, Forest Lodge. The Glebe Art Show is a non-selective, non-acquisitive art show held annually since 1997, with prizes across several categories and all artwork offered for sale. The show aims to support and encourage both emerging and established artists currently living, working or studying within the City of Sydney and Inner West Council boundaries. Entries close on the 8th of October or earlier if hanging capacity is reached.

Mosman Art Prize 2022

2022 Mosman Art Prize, installation view, Mosman Art Gallery. Image courtesy Mosman Art Gallery and © the artists. Photograph: Jacquie Manning.

Painting, titled TwoOpen is a studio painting- I call them secret shed paintings; they’re spontaneous and brave and can be about many things.

Here’s what I wrote; ‘Two Open is a painting which celebrates painting. It is a culmination of looking at landscape over the last few years as an entry into what lays beneath the obvious subject. Other ideas are always at play when painting; light, rhythm, pattern, favourite influences. This painting has a little bit of everything which I love.’

Lorna Grear is represented by Flinders Street Gallery and held her recent solo show in June 2022. Her work has previously been selected for the Portia Geach Memorial Art Prize, The Paddington Art Prize, The Adelaide Drawing Prize, Fishers Ghose Art Award and the Liverpool Art Prize.

Fishers Ghost Art Award

The Fisher’s Ghost Art Award is an annual art prize inviting artists to submit works in a variety of artistic categories and mediums. The Open Award is acquisitive to the Campbelltown City Council collection and in 2022, in celebration of the 60th Anniversary; the award is valued at $60,000. The exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday 29 October until Friday 9 December, 10 am – 4pm

My painting, titled Snakes And Ladders; 150 x 130 cm, acrylic on canvas, is selected as a finalist.

This painting originally took its subject from Bannaby Creek in the Southern Highlands. After a decade of no rain we now have fast, running, wild waters in this creek. It’s beautiful – with its twists and turns, over rocks and river stones. You can hear a cacophony of feral goats whilst being surrounded by a hundred Xanthorrhoea, or Balga Grass Plants. This painting is my tribute to the creek.

Fisher’s Ghost Art Award 2022

For painting enquiries go to Campbelltown Arts Centre or contact Jason Martin info@flindersstreetgallery.com

Greenway Art Prize 2022

My work, titled, Greenway Upclose: 90 x 95 cm, acrylic on board, framed is currently on view at the Greenway Art Prize, Sydney Bus Museum, Leichhardt.

This work was made in the studio after a texta drawing of a secluded area near Marion Street Light Rail station on the Greenway. It’s a place I’ve taken friends – it reminds me of the bush- there are little walking tracks amongst a myriad of textures and colours through the bush. It is also one of the sites of bush regeneration done by volunteers of Greenway Bushcare.

My painting is an explosion of colour- it is a close up view, painted from memory with a feeling of enclosure within a green space.

Tara Morelos Curator GreenWay Art Prize

Framers; Frameart, Parramatta Road, Sydney

EXHIBITION VENUE: Sydney Bus Museum, Leichhardt

Undergrowth

This work is painted from memory- it has the feeling of an enclosed scrub area. I go there to get lost. Once I discovered a snake skin whilst sitting there, another time I came across a wild pig with her babies in the same spot. It doesn’t feel like many people have ever sat here- it’s in a remote area – you can only reach it by foot. For years the creek that runs close to this was dry- it now has running water with small rapids.

I was trying to paint the feeling of looking through scrub and seeing glimpses of the creek through tea tree bush and spikey leaves.

Of course the work has fave influences of Cubism, geometry and Cezanne . It was exhibited in the Drop Shadow show at Flinders Street Gallery, Sydney and framed by Frameart Sydney.

Not available- Sold/ Private collection …. Gouache on art board- 73 x 83 cm framed

2022 – Works on art board- gouache

These works were painted as small studies – actually at the time they were not studies at all – I didn’t paint them to think about making other works from – they are works within themselves. They are reactions to light and space and atmosphere. The works represent impulsive and intuitive inspirations to paint.

Works available. Contact Lornagrear@hotmail.com or Flinders Street Gallery; flinderstgallery@bigpond.com

Texta works

My texta works tell a different story. I had been in the bush for a while by myself and had used up all my resources. I found a packet of textas. I used these to create my first texta work. It was made out of necessity.

The texta work gave me a freedom to look at form and composition. I had to find a way to simplify and enhance. The medium allowed me to delve into my love of pattern and complicated space. Conflicting harmonies even kaleidoscopic structures appeared.

I use landscape as the structure on which to realise my daily perceptions about the world we share.

For all enquiries contact Lorna Grear lornagrear@hotmail.com or Insta lornagrear_studio

Drop Shadow at Flinders St Gallery

OPENS SATURDAY 4 JUNE 2022, 4-6pm

Early bird enquiries contact Jason Martin; flindersstgallery@bigpond.com

I’ll be showing unseen gouaches and paintings.

Sky Above, gouache on art card, 15 x 20cm, 2021, framed

DROP SHADOW

These works play with the many beautiful and varied possibilities within painting and drawing.

In the past I have been a structuralist, a formalist, definately a colourist, and even at dusk – an impressionist painter! I respond to sensations, and forms and energy. This show I’m using landscape as my base – it grounds me.

I see a series of paintings like words in a sentence. Each word has significance yet the sentence provides the context. I sometimes think it would be perfect to keep the whole sentence together. But, then, poets are good at using singular words- to draw attention to moments. Perhaps, then, each of these paintings, are like moments in the specific time period.

At times, I like a crowded space- as though the picture plane is enveloping me like a blanket. Other times I pull it all apart and leave only the essential…

ALL WELCOME for drinks… Saturday 4 JUNE, 4-6pm; Flinders Street Gallery, 61 Flinders Street, Surryhills, NSW, Australia