Beach Scenes

“In the Bondi Beach paintings there is a distance in the involvement with the subject: the viewer and the painter are in effect spying on bathers enjoying their leisure at one of Australia’s most famous beaches. The leisure seekers are blissfully unaware and clearly unselfconscious about being viewed from above. The wild sea encroaches on the bathers but is held at bay by the natural formation of the reef. There is an air of significance to the ordinariness of the scene: the familiar is in some sense unfamiliar.” Living With Water Exhibition, Charles Hewitt Gallery Sydney 2012

The Bondi paintings have been created over the last 7 years, mostly 2010-12. When I created the first painting, “Ten All”, in 2009 drones and aerial photography was the exclusive domain of NASA and satellites or professional photographers using helicopters. Now viewing from above is a norm in our collective consciousness. It no longer feels like spying, now we can enjoy watching or looking at families and lovers at the beach and relate that to our own memories of familial joyful days lazing on the beach.

Stephanie Fuller, Volley Ball 2009 Acrylic on canvas 137 x 198 cm © Stephanie Fuller

Stephanie Fuller North Bondi 2011 Acrylic on canvas 111.5 x 111.5 cm © Stephanie Fuller

Stephanie Fuller, Fountain of Youth 2010, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm

Stephanie Fuller, Biddigal Reserve 2010, Acrylic on canvas, 90.5 x 90.5 cm © Stephanie Fuller