Saren Dobkins

Saren has been painting professionally for over 25 years. Originally form Zambia, Africa she has lived in several places both in Australia and overseas and has recently settled in Tewantin, Qld. She works predominantly in oils, but has also used photography, sculpture and drawing in her art practice. She has a broad range of interests, having studied Artists from the Renaissance, Modernism and Abstract Expressionism combined with studying literature, ecology and transformational neuroplasticity which have provided her work with multiple layers and meanings.
Saren translates her current concerns and personal experiences to provoke social commentary and explore issues that challenge our definitions of what our society values. Painting for her is an immediate and potent form of communicating and unveiling the disparity of what we inhabit internally or subconsciously and how we act or project ourselves to the outside world. Although Saren searches for balance, she hints at the ongoing flux that is at the core of our existence. The work explores transience and transformation, with the riddle of identity at its core.
Animals and birds appear in several works as a means of exploring our innate selves, the more subliminal, natural aspe...

SELF TAUGHT ARTIST
Dip Grad, International Urban and Environmental Management
Bach. Arts (History of Art and Architecture)
Diploma of Multimedia
Certificate SculptureGrad. Dip Communication Design

2023 - Du Rietz Art Prize (Finalist) Gympie Regional Gallery, QLD
2023 - Omnia Art Prize, (Finalist) Melbourne, Victoria

2023 - The Collectors Edition, Gold Coast Gallery, Queensland

2023- Mirror Mirror, Butter Factory Art Centre, Cooroy, Queensland

2023- More Than The Sum of Its Parts, Noosa Regional Art Gallery, Queensland

2022 - Eclectica Art Award, Portrait Prize, Butter Factory Art Centre, Cooroy, Queensland

2022 - Du Rietz Art Award (Finalist) Gympie Regional Gallery, QLD

2021 - Lyn McRae Drawing Prize (Finalist), Noosa Regional Art Gallery

2021- Qld Regional Art Award (Finalist) Brisbane, Queensland

2021- Du Rietz Award (Finalist), Gympie Regional Gallery

2020- Where There's Smoke, Solo Show, Butter Factory Art Centre, Cooroy, Queensland

2019 Unlearning Qld University Art Museum

2018 - Art and Soul

2018 - Raising the Bar

2014 - As Within, So Without. Melbourne

2013 - Celebration, Melbourne

2012 - A Moment of Insight, Melbourne

2011 - Studio Show 2011, Melbourne

2011 - The Collector's Exhibition, Melbourne

2011 - A Sketchbook Project, New York

2011 - Studio Show, Melbourne

2010 - Place and Belonging-Women's Salon 2010 - Counihan Gallery Melbourne

2009 - CUSP Geelong Grammar School, Corio

2008 - Cafe FM...