about

I am a painter and printmaker living and working in Central Victoria, Australia.

My work is generally about the beauty and meaning that can be found in the everyday – an exploration of familiar objects and surrounds, and of the humour, weight and significance of ordinary things. It’s also an exploration of colour, texture, line, and the interplay of representation and abstraction.

I’m particularly interested in the materiality of paint and the building up of surfaces. I use repurposed boards from old, salvaged op shop paintings; a choice that’s both environmental and aesthetic. This means that the surfaces I start with already have a life and history of their own, with dings and scratches to show for it. In this way the painting is just part of the accumulation.

Making paintings (specially abstract ones) feels to me like searching, looking for moments of resolution, or delight, trying to finish – an act of seeking, with the promise of happiness when you strike the right chord. There’s a sense of trying to make way for the unintended. Perhaps because of this, I paint in short bursts, like I am trying to catch a painting by surprise, looking at it sidelong rather than gazing at it too intensely. It seems better to sneak up on it, to avoid any direct exchange.

CV Kir Larwill 2025