Irene Wilkes

Irene Carmen Wilkes, Artist.
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Irene was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1952. Her parents were Eastern European, post-war immigrants. Irene's mother loved folk art and crafts, especially embroidery. She introduced Irene to the colours, organic shapes and repetitive patterns of her native Poland.

At the age of 10 Irene received a Highly Commended award in an Art Competition for a landscape done solely in tones of green, with innovative use of watercolour pencils. This is where making art ended for her for decades. The practicality of earning a living took Irene into Information Technology, from which she retired in 2010.

From this point onwards, her life became a blank canvas and she started once more, to look for meaning in the art world. For her it was like starting life anew. After a few years of exploring just about every medium, course, and group available, Irene settled on painting as a form of expression.

Mixed media opened up a range of possibilities. Lately, she has settled with her favourite technique, that of underpainting with acrylics, overpainting with water mixable oils, and adding the finishing touches with water colour, and oil crayons, then making a final mark with grap...

Queensland College of Art, Photography

University of Queensland, Bachelor of Arts

Queensland University of Technology,
Master of Information Technology

Cambridge Drawing Society
Cambridge Open Studios
Artfinder