Frances Mcmahon

Born in Armidale NSW in 1965, artist Frances McMahon has lived in Canberra for
most of her life.

Since the age of five she firmly decided that she was going to paint birds, and since then has had an undying and passionate obsession in capturing the beauty of our Australian native species.

Frances is entirely self-taught and uses reference material of her own.

She sold her first painting when she was fourteen, to renowned artist Paul Ashton Delprat, principal of the Julian Ashton Art School.

Developed over many years, her self-taught technique consists of airbrushed (liquid acrylic) backgrounds, with the main work completed in watercolour and gouache. Using a minute brush, her elaborate paintings take between 30 and 230 hours to complete. The technique is time-consuming but straightforward: an initial pale wash is then worked many times over with tiny strokes of the brush, building up depth and form. Many of the details are so fine they may only be seen with a magnifying glass.

Ensuring the longevity of her work, only the highest quality materials are used, including artist's quality lightfast paints and 2000gsm (8 ply) Rising museum board for the ground. This is an archival quality board, buffered against acid migra...

Diploma of Arts (Graphic Design) 1986

WINNER of the SAM SLATER ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD (for an artist under 25 years) at the prestige Australasian Wildlife Art Society's 1992 Annual Exhibition.

RELEASED FIRST OPEN EDITION PRINT (2000) : 'Waiting for the Rains' (Eastern Rosellas).

EXHIBITED at Morpeth Gallery's Annual Wildlife Art Exhibition : 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005.

Voted 3rd most popular painting (People's Choice Award) Wildlife and Botanical Artists (ACT) 2nd Annual Art Show and Prize 2000.

FEATURED ARTIST in the January 2001 and August 2007 issues of 'Australian Artist' magazine.

INVITED by Barren Grounds Bird Observatory to submit a painting which was silently auctioned in Sydney by Christie's in April 2001. This was part of a fund-raising venture. It sold above the reserve.

WINNER of the HIGHLY COMMENDED WILDLIFE ART AWARD ~ Wildlife and Botanical Artists (ACT) 3rd Annual Art Show and Prize 2001.

WINNER of the HIGHLY COMMENDED WILDLIFE ART AWARD ~ Wildlife and Botanical Artists (ACT) 4th Annual Art Show and Prize 2002.

Five of her paintings were selected by Art Publishing for reproduction onto greeting cards. In November 2002, 1000 of each were printed and distributed around Australia and New Zealand.

FINALIST in the Intern...