My Amazing Journey in Art from being a farmer’s wife in the Mallee to Kerry Anne’s Fine Arts Gallery in Toorak, Melbourne, Australia

I was born in Hopetoun, Victoria, Australia.   As a youngster, I loved colour, design and the Australian landscape my family had farmed for generations.

I graduated from La Trobe University in 1969 with a Graduate Diploma of Teaching and began painting in 1980 to help me survive the rigours of my first marriage, a chronic autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s, and the isolation of living in the Mallee on a wheat and sheep farm. 

Acrylics, oils, pencils, and pastels are my favoured mediums, and I enjoy the immediacy and subtly of pencil work  I am passionate about. My paintings have been exhibited overseas, in Paris, Vancouver and the USA.

My love of colour; the effects of Australia’s stunning light and our textured rugged landscape and seascapes really rock my artistic boat.

My other great love is portraiture, having entered the Archibald Art Prize three times and taught portraiture in workshops and to my wonderful students over many years.

My realist painting has been enormously influenced by the work of world-acclaimed Canadian wildlife artist and friend, Robert Bateman, whose work I first came across in 1991 and in 1996 when I was invited to visit his studio for afternoon tea on Salt Spring Island in BC Canada on my lone epic art crawl around the world. What a privilege!!

Another considerable influence on my work has been Richard Stone, the Queen’s portraitist, who I met in 2004 and to who I had the joy of selling some notable paintings.

Influencers on my contemporary paintings come from our home-grown Australia master, Brett Whitley, as well as from the timeless Austrian symbolist Gustav Klimt, German Abstract artist Gerhard Richter’s incredible drag paintings, Chinese Zao Wou-Ki’s huge abstract works, Grace Hartigan’s brilliant American Abstract Expressionism, and Peruvian artist Juan Carlos Zeballos Moscairo’s, bold, abstract paintings. 

I have previously owned and directed two Melbourne Art Galleries in Berwick and Toorak.   Whilst in these businesses I had the privilege of promoting the work of many of Australia’s major artists and running some of Australia’s major wildlife, landscape, floral and equine art exhibitions.  I have been a member of the Australian Guild of Realist Artists, Victorian Artists Society, a past member of WASA, The Pastel Society of Victoria and The Contemporary Art Society of Victoria. 

My paintings have been featured in numerous magazines and private, corporate and government collections both here in Australia and overseas. [England, France, Canada, USA, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.]

In between times, I am a corporate wife, mother of three grown children, step mum to two adult boys, and Grand to six beautiful grandchildren.

One of my other special passions is writing, having written poetry from the age of twelve. To date, I have written four novels.  To me, writing is so like painting in the depiction and development of characters just like in portraiture. I find verbally painting pictures, plotting, planning and executing a novel much like the process of getting an idea for a painting, planning it out with good composition, colour coordination, tone and the wow-factor much like creating a storyline, colourful landscape and people then working through the story, bringing it to an expected and sometimes unexpected exciting conclusion.   

I now live with my husband Paul in Clifton Springs where I have a full and prolific studio, which will hopefully, Covid19 permitting, will soon be open to the public by appointment.

I am extremely grateful for my gift of artisticness, for my indomitable determination and for the past forty years of learning and establishing myself as an honest, quality artist who has taken all art has to give, ………….. and never given up, to this very day.

How good is Life when you allow yourself to DREAM……………….and CREATE?

Name:	Kerry Anne Sullivan
Web site:	www.kerryannesullivan.com
Details of Exhibitions Entered:	ka-sullivan@bigpond.com  Born : Hopetoun, Victoria, Australia 1949  Studies:  1969 Diploma of Teaching La Trobe University majoring in Art  Private Collections: New York, USA  Seattle, USA  London, UK  Vancouver, Canada  Johannesburg, Sth Africa  Dublin, Ireland  Toronto, Canada  Art Prize Exhibitions:  2012- The Waterhouse Natural History Exhibition  The Moran Portrait Prize  2011- The Waterhouse Natural History Exhibition  2010- The Waterhouse Natural History Exhibition  2008- The Waterhouse Natural History Exhibition  2016, 2013, 2007- The Archibald Art Prize  2006- The Glove Art Prize 2022, 2017,Swan Drawing Prize   Group & Award Exhibitions – National & International:  Gallery Miromessnil, Paris, France 1997  The Archibald Art Prize 2016, 2013, 2007  The Moran Portrait Prize 2012, 2014  The Waterhouse Art Prize 2015, 12, 10,08, 07  Swanhill Drawing Prize  2022, 2017, Camberwell Rotary Exhibition 2022, 2021, 2017,16, 15,14, 13,12, 11,10, 09, 08,07, 06, 05,04,03,02, 01, 94, 92, 90,88,  Glover Award 2007, 06  St Kevin’s College Art Exhibition 2016,15,14,13, 12, 11, 10, 09,08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01  Caulfield Grammar Exhibition 2016, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11,10, 09, 08,07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01  Mt Waverley Holy Family School Exhibition 2016, 14, 12, 11, 10, 09,08,07,06, 05, 04,03, 02, 01  Box Hill Rotary Exhibition 2006, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01  Alice Bale Award 2004, 2002  ‘A Walk On The Wild Side” Kerry Anne’s Akoonah Park Gallery 1999, 98, 97, 96  Wildlife Art Society of Australasia Exhibition 2001, 1996, 97, 98  Victor Harbour Rotary Exhibition SA 2018, 2014, 2006, 05,03,02,  Sorrento Rotary Exhibition 2017, 2015, 2011, 09, 08,06, 05,04,03,02,01  Ivanhoe Grammar Art Exhibition 2007, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01  Brighton Rotary Exhibition 2012, 11, 10, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01  Altona Rotary Exhibition 2015,12,11,10, 09, 08,07,06, 05, 04,03, 02, 01  Carey Grammar Exhibition 2005,06, 07, 08  Sacred Heart Bentleigh Exhibition 2013, 10, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01  Hamilton Nth Exhibition 2005, 03, 02, 01  Wangaratta Exhibition 2005, 04, 02, 01  Dromana Autumn 2002,03,04  McNeill Academy of Realist Artists Exhibition 2005, 90, 87  Portland Rotary Exhibition 2002, 03, 04,  Corowa Oddfellows Exhibition 2004,02,01  Charlton Rotary Art Exhibition 1987, 89, 92  Boort Amity Art Exhibition 1987, 89  Eaglehawk Art Exhibition 1991, 90,89, 88, 87  Bendigo Rotary Exhibition 1996, 95,94,93,92,91,90,89,88,87  Kerang Rotary Art Show 2007, 06,07  Publications: Australian Artist Magazine  Art Almanac  Art Gallery Guide  Art Collector  Melbourne Weekly  Antiques and Arts Magazine  Alexandra Standard  Swan Hill Guardian  The Hills Trader  The Berwick Leader Newspaper  Boroondara Leader Newspaper  Stonnington Leader Newspaper  Herald Weekly Times  Progress Leader  Gallery Magazine  Solo Exhibitions:  1993-Swan Hill  2005-Kew  2007-Kew  2011-Steps Gallery Lygon St Melbourne  2013-Steps Gallery Lygon St Melbourne  2016- Solo Exhibition ‘Africa’ Steps Gallery Lygon St Melbourne  Curatorial Experience: Owner/Director  1996-1999 Kerry Anne’s Akoonah Park Gallery Berwick  1999 – 2001 Kerry Anne’s Fine Arts Toorak  2001-2012 Kerry Anne’s Fine Arts Kew 2018 – 2022 Clifton Springs Fine Art Studio
Current Location:	13 Kanyanya Ave Clifton Springs Vic 3222