Phillip Stallard Contemporary Art at SOHO Galleries

Phillip Stallard
Sydney Voices

"A month ago with COVID looming I relocated my studio from Wisemans Ferry to my Sydney apartment. I covered everything in drop sheets and started to paint the series I am calling 'Sydney Voices.' As the bad news descended and with little prospect of getting out to my bush studio, I delved into the past.

"In the 90s I was exhibiting in Paddington, my studio was in Bondi Junction, and I painted the working harbour, Watsons Bay, Parsley Bay, Garden Island, Cockatoo Island, and North Head, working my way westward along the Parramatta River. So, with nothing but vague memories I have produced a series of paintings based on these recollections. The paintings are luminous and are saturated with fondness, they resemble Haiku's, the present distilled by the past as I am driven to explore the beauty of our surroundings." - Phillip Stallard.

View all of Phillip Stallard's works.

City and The Shark Net

"We used to take our babies to Balmoral Beach, the water was always calm, and we used to sit under the bridge connecting Rocky Point. I have memories of fish and chips, the rotunda, and the bustle of the Esplanade. So, in the middle of COVID isolation I thought I would bring it to life. The shark net features in this painting, it has always fascinated me, and even though now it has been replaced I will continue to paint it." View online.

Parsley Bay (Unreliable Haiku)

"We spent many summers swimming in Parsley Bay, and, in my years of painting, I had not painted the Parsley Bay bridge - it's a beautiful form. In this painting I've mixed it up, the headland is rendered with charcoal, the memory is vivid white with North Head, as always, sneaking in with the last word hovering on the horizon. I have use a variety of white pigments to contrast the charcoal, so there is an element of drawing balanced precariously like a Haiku." View online.

North Head (Memory Haiku)

"I used to rock climb on North Head. There was a climb called 'The Fear'. This is a memory of floating above the water looking west. Balmoral is in the distance, there are also echoes of Pittwater. I have reduced the experience into floating forms, evocative and mysterious." View online.

Sydney Dream with Distant Voices

"This painting is an ode to light and mist. Winter at my Wisemans studio means lots of mist. I have used a memory of standing at the lookout at North Head, looking west, and mixed it with a winter morning on the Hawkesbury - everything drenched in white but with golden light subtly making its way through." View online.

Going Through the Heads

"I have changed the geography here and painted this amazing piece of architecture as a living thing. South Head/Parsley Bay has morphed with the landscape around my bush studio at Wisemans Ferry. Everything is floating and there is a vague reference to the Bottle and Glass point - stories are that the Navy used to use it for target practice." View online.

Jetty Jumping

"I am also drawn to the emotive qualities of Sydney's waterways. The paintings connect me psychologically to nature, the emotions and dialogue are intuitive and convey a sense of belonging." View online.

Oyster Bay

"My latest abstractions are about places. I start with memory, often of the Hawkesbury River - a place I explored as a child - and the painting evolves. I paint colour fields that are inhabited with spontaneous gestures. These marks are highly personal but I also appropriate visual ideas gleaned from the graffitied walls of the inner city and construction sites of the suburbs." View online.