, “To paint is to embark on a battle with no guarantee of success; it is to wrestle with the elements, with the paint and the canvas, to push your own body to its limits, to resist your own thoughts and preconceptions”
– Marlene Dumas.
Painting at Fowlers Gap, 2024.
Felicity’s images arise from an engagement with the external starting point of or from the landscape and arrive at something that is both non-representational yet simultaneously tied to a sense of place. Her practice resists the limits of language, yet refers to something referencing symbols which position expressive mark-making as a means of translation – an attempt to communicate something felt but not easily described.
The process of layers being created on a surface through covering, erasing, revealing, and rediscovering creates an image which is not just internal or external but an other, third kind of landscape. The restrained, neutral tertiary palette utilises muted tones as a grounding mechanism, echoing a more primal and intuitive effort to distill an essence of place and story.
“Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding, we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define or fully comprehend.” Carl Jung – Man and His Symbols.
CV
Education
2023 – July Awarded Scholarship from The New York Studio School, summer school
2022 – 2023 The New York Studio School Certificate Program (Painting)
2004 – 2008 Post Graduate Degree, Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia.
1995 – 1997 Masters of Art Therapy, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
1993 – 1995 Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, La Trobe University, Melbourne Australia.
Solo exhibitions
2026 ‘Scripted Landscapes’, Strait Jacket, Newcastle, NSW.
2025 ‘Archaic Lands’, Weswal Gallery, Tamworth
2019 ‘Things of natural origin’, Art Gallery on Darling, Balmain, Sydney
2018 ‘My Wilderness’, Art Gallery on Darling, Balmain, Sydney
2017 ‘Clouds & dirt: Australian landscapes’ Art Gallery on Darling, Balmain, Sydney
2017 ‘Clouds & dirt: Australian landscapes’ Gallery Klei, Sydney
Art Awards
2026 Finalist – John Lesley Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery
2026 Finalist – Muswellbrook Art Prize
2026 Winner – The Inaugural Defiance Gallery Art Award
2025 Finalist – Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize
2025 Finalist – Hawkesbury Art Prize
2025 Finalist – Gosford Art Prize
2025 Finalist – Georges River Art Prize
2023 Awarded a scholarship from The New York Studio School to attend summer school in NYC
2021 Finalist – Bay of Fires Art Prize, Tasmania.
2019 Winner – First prize ‘Art in the Open’
2019 Finalist – John Villier’s Outback prize
2019, 2018, 2016 Finalist – Hunters Hill Art Prize
2018 Finalist – Muswellbrook Art Prize.
2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2008 & 2006 Finalist – Gosford Art Prize
2018, 2017 Finalist – Kings School prize
2016 Finalist – Australian Korean Foundation Art Prize (KAAF) Judged by John McDonald
2015 Highly Commended – Contemporary Art Prize.
2015 Finalist – Blacktown Art Prize (Judged by Edmund Capon).
2015 Finalist – Hornsby Art Prize.
2015 Highly Commended – Art Shine Gallery, ‘Works on board’.
2012, 2000,1999 Finalist – Waverley Art Prize.
2009 Highly Commended – Art in the Vines, Hunter Valley.
2006 Awarded Commission, 75 works for Sir Norman Foster building, ‘Lumiere’, Regent Place, Sydney.
2000 Finalist – Willoughby City Contemporary Art Prize.
1999 Highly Commended – Lane Cove Art Award, Lane Cove.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 ‘Mid Winter Group show’, Defiance Gallery, Paddington, NSW.
2024 ‘Summer Salon’, Straitjacket Art Space, Newcastle, NSW.
2021 ‘Five at the Finke’, Walcha Gallery of Art, Walcha, NSW.
2021 ‘After the Ashes’, Art Gallery on Darling, Balmain, Sydney.
2020 ‘Painting Journeys’, Walcha Gallery of Art, Walcha, NSW.
2019 ‘Land & Sea’, Walcha Gallery of Art, Walcha, NSW.
2017, 2018, 2019 Packsaddle, New England Regional Art Museum.
2016, 2017, 2018 Group show, Art Gallery on Darling, Balmain, Sydney.
2016 ‘A Social Landscape’, The Depot Gallery, Waterloo, Sydney.
2016 ‘Room for Art’, Gosford Regional Gallery. .
2015 ‘Gestures’, Hunters Hill Art Gallery, Hunters Hill, Sydney.
2015 ‘Elements’, The Depot Gallery, Waterloo, Sydney.
2015 ‘Women Beneath the surface’, Art Shine Gallery, Chippendale, Sydney.
2014 ‘Along Those Lines’, The Depot Gallery, Waterloo, Sydney.
2014 ‘4+1=1+4’ Group Exhibition, Gosford Regional Gallery.
2011 ‘Christmas Show’, Gallery 41, Woolloomooloo, Sydney.
2011 ‘The Way We See It’, Group Exhibition, Gosford Regional Gallery.
2007 – 2019 Annual 5 Lands Walk and exhibition, Avoca Beach, NSW.
2007 & 2008 ‘Art for Ethiopia’, Red Door Gallery, Sydney.
2005 ‘Abstract Works’, Red Door Gallery, Sydney.
Publications:
Rees, J. 2016. Contemporary Art Awards: Finalist Exhibition 2015. 23 January-23 June 2016, Contemporary Art Awards, Brisbane, Queensland.