Felicity Burke is a Melbourne-based artist working predominantly with acrylic paint, oil pastel and pencil on canvas and canvas paper. Her bright and energetic paintings are influenced by the aesthetics found in nature, architecture, textiles and everyday objects.
Felicity’s work chronicles the colours and objects found in her everyday life, her past and things seen in her travels. She references her relationship to the Australian bush, coral reefs and coastlines, as well as structures or objects that she’s drawn to. She further deconstructs this visual material to explore the interplay between natural and human-made forms.
Control versus chance, organic versus human-made and the abstract versus the actual are recurring themes in her work and she explores how these contrasting ideas can harmonise together. She alternates between spontaneous, loose brushwork and intentional mark-making and combines different techniques- often pouring paint onto the canvas so it flows freely and invites an element of chance into the work.
Felicity received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Monash University, Australia (2009-2012) and spent part of her degree studying in Tuscany, Italy.