A Gentle Lost Weekend Painting

Justin is visual artist based in the coastal town of Newcastle, Australia. Justin has been drawing for as long as he can remember, After earning his tertiary qualifications in Graphic Design and Photography (2009) Justin set out on new endeavours finally coming full circle and returning to his roots and rekindling his love of painting, photography and design into a full-fledged professional career as an abstract, expressionist painter. Justin’s work is big, bright, vivid, very gestural with a lot of motion and layers, reminiscent of abstract expressionism and gestural abstraction periods from New York. With broad brush strokes of colour, along with the quickness and free flowing nature of finer strokes that are almost signature like in appearance, the artworks seem to take on a life of their own. Justin draws on a lot of feelings, emotions and memories to dictate the palate and allowing the energy of sound to inspire his work and to guide his movements. A controlled mess, if you will. Justin has had a number of solo and joint exhibitions at independent galleries in Newcastle throughout the late 2000’s and after a small hiatus from painting contributed to group shows as well as donating significant works towards charitable causes such HMRI and the Mark Hughes Foundation. In 2019, Justin was asked by the Hunter Medical Research Institute to be the 2019 resident artist, creating an original work to be auctioned off, raising over $7000. In June 2020, during a global pandemic, Justin had a near sold out solo show, “As We All Play Parts Of Tomorrow” at Blackstone Gallery in Newcastle, as well as being commissioned by multiple collectors to produce works. Justin was also commissioned by The Pink Frangipani Ball committee to create an original work, which is intended to be auctioned or sold, to further support HPCA and Procare Mental Health Services. 2021 will also see Justin be a part of The Other Art Fair in Sydney in March, as well as produce two solo shows to be held at independent galleries in Newcastle, Onwards Studios and Blackstone Gallery. Justin’s work exists in private collections throughout Australia, New Zealand and England.