He’s been painting for over 50 years, and in addition to the Archibald has won several other awards including the Paddington Art Prize for landscape painting and has been shortlisted in others including another three times in the Archibald, in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the Wynne Prize, the Sulman Prize, the Kilgour Prize, and the list goes on.

Costa paints in an expressionist style. His whole practice is about trapping energy and a large part of his method is guided by an eastern philosophy – seeking to enter into the world of nothingness and distancing himself from any thought process. This process is applied whether it’s a landscape or a portrait.

His methods are neither traditional nor predictable and I found our conversation incredibly interesting and eye opening with a good dose of humour thrown in.

This podcast interview was recorded in Tony’s beautiful studio in Sydney. To hear it, press play beneath the above feature photo.

I first met Tony at the Art Gallery of NSW shortly after his win was announced. You can see my 5 minute interview with him on that day here.

Scroll down for a short video of Tony Costa talking with Maria Stoljar in his studio.

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