March 30, 2017

Ep 19: Loribelle Spirovski

38 minutes

Loribelle Spirovski’s career is rising. Fast. Although she only began painting seriously about five years ago, in just over the last two she won the Cambridge Studio Gallery Art prize and has been a finalist in 18 other art competitions including the Black Swan Art Prize, Muswellbrook Art Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award and was semi finalist twice in the Doug Moran National Portrait prize.

She will be showing her work in three solo shows and two group shows over the next 12 months.

Born in the Philippines, Spirovski came to Australia when she was nine and studied to become an art teacher, never imagining she could become a practising artist. However, she soon realised teaching was not for her, and during a period of despondency, took to painting.

She has not turned back. Relentlessly researching renowned artists and their techniques she has embarked on an exciting path of exploration, constantly taking risks and producing impressive works along the way.

In this interview she talks about how she taught herself to paint, the struggles she faced and why the rejection of her painting ‘Vers la Flamme‘ for the Archibald prize in 2015 was to cause her to rethink her whole approach.

We also discuss how she met her partner, acclaimed concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi, who has become her muse and source of much of her subject matter and how their relationship and the music in their lives has impacted her work.

Click here to see a short video of Loribelle Spirovski on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel.

Upcoming events

Solo show at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, NSW

Group show ‘Emerging 2017’ with Gosford Regional Gallery, East Gosford, NSW, 8 April – 21 May 2017

Group show ‘Practise what you teach’, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, NSW, 29 April – 4 June 2017

Solo exhibition arising from current residency with Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, Sydney, NSW – date TBA

Solo show with Cambridge Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria – date TBA

Links to things we talk about on the show

Loribelle Spirovski

Doug Moran National Portrait Prize

Olsen Gallery

Photorealism

Black Swan Prize

Portia Geach Memorial Award

Cambridge Studio Gallery Art prize

Diego Velazquez

John Singer Sargent

Ray Turner

Simon Tedeschi

Dmitri Shostakovich

Alexander Scriabin

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Synaesthesia

Olivier Messiaen

Loribelle Spirovski on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel (below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvR3UxOCwrk

‘Etudes’, oil on canvas and linen, 40 x 30cm each, finalist, Mosman Art Prize 2016

‘Vers la Flamme’, oil on canvas, 120 x 90cm We talk about this painting at 17:50 of the interview.

‘Memento Mori – Mens Rea’ oil on canvas, 61 x 76cm

‘Simon’, 2017, oil on linen, 51 x 51cm Winner Cambridge Studio Gallery Portrait Prize 2017.

‘Hell-tempered clavier’, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120cm

‘Homme 8’, oil and acrylic on canvas paper, 29 x 42cm

‘Icarus’ oil on panel, 41 x 41cm

‘Femme’ triptych, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas paper, finalist Wyndham art prize

‘Mother and Child’ 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas 120 x 90cm

Works on paper, all pen, 21 x 29cm, clockwise from top left: Mohawk, Sketch after Bacon, Hunger 1, When two become one, Scream, Pieta

‘Black widow’, Copic marker and pen on paper, 21 x 29cm

‘Time Traveller’ 2015, oil on canvas, 120 x 60cm This was the painting accepted as a semi-finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. It’s discussed in the interview at 12:15

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By Maria Stoljar

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