Fiona Barrett-Clark

"As I go about the usual nightly routine of making and eating dinner, doing housework, the TV droning in the background, through the large windows at the back of my house, I am able to watch the sky slowly transform from day to night.

I am mesmerised by this time of the day, both the physical beauty and the metaphoric exhale which symbolises the days end. Everything winding down, the darkness creeping in and everything seems less urgent. The colour of the sky deepens, yet is still backlit by the descending sun, the last rays of light catching the tips of clouds. It can be incredibly subtle and at other times, sublimely intense. The juxtaposition of this against the opaque black silhouettes of the suburbs, which like a frame, completes the image. The changing sky floats silently overhead, a beauty we rarely notice.

About the Artist

Fiona lives in the suburbs of Sydney on Dharug land, where though only 30 minutes from the CBD, her home back into bushland and she uses this area as her subject matter. Her works focus on the afternoon and evening, capturing the colour and mood of the sky contrasting against dark shadowed suburban landscape, a time of the day that can be both incredibly beautiful and simultaneously eerie. She wants to awaken people to the magnificence of nature that often goes unnoticed and is more than likely just outside their door.

Fiona graduated from The Sydney Gallery School in 1998, majoring in painting and since then has had 10 solo exhibitions. She has been represented by Saint Cloche since 2020.