Frances Feasey
At the age of seven I decided that I wanted to be an artist. I loved drawing and making things with my hands. While studying fine arts at the Tamworth TAFE back in the 90’s, straight out from high school, I started to grow as an artist and there I learnt the fundamentals of art making. One of my influential teachers, Ross Laurie took me seriously. He exposed me to what is possible in art-making and encouraged my passion for creating even further.
After TAFE I spent the next year travelling Europe visiting many major art galleries and tourist sites. The highlight was visiting Italy with all its ancient wonders such as Assisi (before the earthquake that damaged the basilica) and Florence and the Uffizi. When I returned, I pursued further art education at the College of Fine Arts UNSW and from there I set out into the world painting and experiencing new things.
Over the years I’ve developed a love for landscape painting as I spend a lot of time walking in the bush. My landscapes aren’t always accurate, they often depict my memories of a particular place and the experience I had and what was memorable to me.
I often paint new paintings over old paintings that haven’t made the cut for various reasons. I find partially working over these works (by preserving some aspect of the original work) gives the new painting more depth and intrigue and in the end are more successful.