AUSiMED‘s major 2015 fundraiser has lasooed a slew of 25 of Australia’s most collectible artists for auction event like no other at Mossgreen in Melbourne on Monday 7th September. One prolific painter, has gifted a key work from his latest collection. Guest at Belle magazine’s artist dinner in Brisbane this month, Craig Waddell wooed invitees with his work and life as a painter.
His art is dangerously intrusive – it holds the kind of perfection, artistic gestures, and tactility that gets right in side your noggin, has a good feel around, and leaves without so much as a goodbye kiss. From birds, to flowers, to the most perfect strawberry glazed donut in the world, his art presents a world we know, in a dimension that’s far more intuitive.

“I have a love affair with paint and painting and this passion runs through all the various subject matters and forms I tackle. I love the physical act of almost wrestling with paint and canvas, applying paint in an explosive way. Maybe this stems from my sporting background: I played first grade cricket from a young age, and this physical performance on the field, mirrors the physicality I bring to my painting.”


Sensual and tactile, Craig Waddell’s work celebrates both the sublime and the imperfect. Laying down paint, wet into wet, observing while intuitive colour and gesture build and change, he destroys, renews and resurrects images from everyday life.
Watch Craig wax on about working life as a painter HERE.

A close attunement to the natural world began during childhood on his family farm. Whether painting a rooster as a riff on contemporary portraiture, or a protea as an evocation of love, he is confident journeying through colour choices, compositional risks, scraping back and starting fresh, ultimately building several layers of paint to finish the work. The results, he says, are the product of his fundamental interest in paint – through his immersion in the “field of activity” that is the canvas. Waddell’s earthy, emotional honesty provides a refreshing take on masculine use of paint without fear of beauty.



Pedigree: No stranger to world of awards and residencies, Waddell has held solo exhibitions in Sydney, Hong Kong, Paris and Thailand. He completed his Masters degree at the Chiang Mai University, Thailand and his Bachelor degree at the National Art School, Sydney. Waddell has completed residencies at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris and is a previous recipient of the Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship, undertaking studies at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. In 2010 he was awarded the Mossman Prize and he has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize, Wynne Prize, Blake Prize, Dobell Prize and Sulman Prize.
Craig is represented by Nicholas Thompson Gallery in Melbourne, click here to see his AUSiMED art work

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