Biography

Kynan Sutherland lives and works in Castlemaine, Victoria. After graduating from The Victorian College of the Arts (Honours) he exhibited annually in Melbourne, Central Australia and Central Victoria. His work responds to the unique subtleties of the Australian landscape.

Kynan has received numerous prizes including the Len Fox Painting Prize (Finalist), AME Bale Painting Prize (Finalist), Dominique Segan Drawing Prize (Winner), Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing (Finalist), John Leslie Art Prize (Finalist) and the Castlemaine State Festival Art Award (Twice Winner). He is also an accomplished classical guitarist and authorised Zen teacher.

Throughout his career he has sought to articulate a deep love for the natural world. Each painting is a concentrated gesture of respect for the quiet mystery of the local landscape. He has also completed portraits for both public and private collections.

If you would like to arrange a viewing, purchase a painting or commission new work, please visit the contact page.

About my paintings

All of my paintings are completed in the landscape, en plein air. I take my easel and a thermos of tea into the field and wait for a place to call me in. Often it's an unexpected gully or tree or body of water. I then let the light, atmosphere and feeling guide my brush and finish the work in a single sitting.

What draws me to working the way I do?

I love responding directly to the local landscape. I love being in the bush for hours on end. Australia has a rich tradition of plein air painting that stretches back long before the Impressionists. I'm thinking about explorer sketchbooks and indigenous paintings. I also love oil paint itself, which is extraordinarily sensitive and expressive. When I see the work of other plein air painters I feel I'm right there with them, shaking in the wind and waving away the flies.

What do I see and feel in these paintings?

It's the mysterious beauty of the bush that makes me want to paint, and that's what I see when I look at the finished paintings. I'm not trying to capture an obvious likeness. I'm letting the natural energy and quiet hum of the bush shine through. When I look at my own works I'm taken back into that mystery, that sensation, which only reveals itself over time, but is palpably there.

Why is painting so important?

Whenever I look at paintings they change the way I see the world. And not just see - they reorganise my entire being, showing new ways of orienting myself towards life. Humans have always painted. No one knows why. But there's a deep pleasure in it, a primal impulse to share our deepest intimations with the world. The best paintings never get tired. They go on revealing themselves over years and years.

Prizes

2023 Finalist, Maldon Landscape Prize
2021 Finalist, Len Fox Painting Prize
2020 Finalist, AME Bale Painting Prize
2008 Winner, Castlemaine State Festival Art Prize
2008 Finalist, Adeliade Perry Prize for Drawing
2007 Winner, Mount Alexander Shire Arts Grant 2009 Finalist, John Leslie Art Prize2007 Winner, Dominique Segan Drawing Prize

Selected Exhibitions

2023 Plein Air Artists—Robert Maclaurin and Kynan Sutherland, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
2021 Paintings and Pottery (with Kirsty Sutherland) Artpuff, The Mill, Castlemaine
2021 Castlemaine State Festival, Open Studios
2008 ‘Open Hills’ - New Landscapes from Central Victoria, Flinders Lane Gallery
2008 ‘Leanganook’ - New Landscapes from Mount Alexander, Phee Broadway Theatre, Castlemaine
2006 ‘Lamentations’ — New paintings from South Gippsland, Flinders Lane Gallery
2005 ‘Quiet Country’ - Paintings and Drawings from Central Australia, Dante’s Gallery, Melbourne
2003 ‘Running Waters’ - Paintings and Limited Edition Poetry Books, Dante’s Gallery, Melbourne
2002 ‘The William Buckley Suite’, Opened by Barry Hill, Preview Gallery, Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Landmarks, Artpuff, The Mill, Castlemaine
2020 AME Bale Painting Prize, Glen Eira City Council, Melbourne (Finalist)
2019 ‘From Nature Sprung’, Plein Air Painting in Central Victoria, Cascade Gallery, Maldon
2011 ‘Inner Worlds: Portraits and Psychology’, National Portrait Gallery, ACT
2008 ‘Explorations 8’ - New paintings from Unsigned Artists, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2002 ‘Red Group Show’, Red Gallery, Melbourne
2000 ‘Environment>Invention>Memory’ — Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Melbourne
2000 ‘Unprocessed / Reprocessed’ — Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adeliade

Selected Publications

Sasha Grishin, A Meditation on the Landscapes of Kynan Sutherland in Open Hills, Exhibition Catalogue 2008

Christopher Chapman, Inner Worlds, Portraits and Psychology, National Portrait Gallery, 2011

ABC Central Victoria, Arts Awards Announced, 2007

Classical Guitar

2022 Masterclass with Slava and Leonard Grigorian (December 11) performing Little Suite by Nicholas Maw.
2022 Melbourne Guitar Circle (October 23) performance of Homenaje a Debussy by Manuel de Falla.
2022 Masterclass with John Griffiths (August 14) performing Fantasia by John Dowland
2022 Melbourne Guitar Circle (June 5) performance of Into the Dreaming by Peter Sculthorpe and Nocturnal (excepts) by Benjamin Britten.
2022 Masterclass with Slava and Leonard Grigorian (March 27) performing Elogio de la Danza by Leo Brouwer.