Local Artist Series // Darren White
Who are you and what do you create?
I am a contemporary abstract landscape painter.
What materials and techniques do you use?
Painting with Acrylic and Oil on Canvas or Timber with no clear direction at the beginning of each work, I let the enjoyment of painting and the colours combine to draw me into a place, typically from remembering a moment, colour, mood or feeling from somewhere I have been.
What kind of inspirations go into your work?
Lots of good memories, I am not one to focus on photographs in life, much to the dismay of my lovely fiancé, she is a photographer so unfortunately has minimal photos of herself. I like to believe it’s not from laziness but my subconscious mind working away storing other tidbits of information that allow me to go back to revist memory in my own loose way. I remember while building boat trailers with a wise old soul, he said it was unique to remember via smell, I’m not sure that’s true, but I like when it happens, the wise man also said that he didn’t need to drink water, he got his daily intake from tea.
In what space do you like to create most?
Normally my studio but I have a very new one that I haven’t completely settled into yet. I have grown to love painting through the morning and into the early evening. It might be due to having a two-year-old, but I don’t have the same drive to paint at night, which used to be the only way for me. I kinda feel my work has become more pure when I zone out and into my art during the day, it feels like a massive privilege to be able to do it as a priority too.
What has been your favourite or most important work to date?
Easily, Bar Croq Soleil, which is a painting of my local café from when we lived in Paris. The reason it is important to me is, it was sitting in this café, watching the world go by, when I decided art wasn’t going to just be a hobby anymore and I needed it to become a bigger part of me. I started the painting more than a year later after having a successful first solo show in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris and once we moved home to Peregian. The work took way too long to finish but after close to two years, on and off, it came right, and was chosen as a finalist in one of Australia’s most important art prizes.
To see more of Darren's work, head to his Instagram or website.
