It will be an understatement to say that I am absolutely thrilled and honoured to be on the Finalits list for this year’s Paddington Art Prize.
Has taken me a while to write these lines, as I have been digesting the news and thinking about what this means to me.
When I moved to Australia 14 years ago, I was drawn to the beauty of its land immediately, like many others before me. I started painting the landscape as a way of finding common links between Australia and Venezuela; but also because I really needed to feel I belonged here. Finding similarities between the two was a way of rooting. Whatever scenery I painted was inspired in Australia and imagined as Venezuela; and vice versa.
To be able to represent this beautiful land that Australia is, and through my work share, a bit of where I am from is priceless.
Road to Nowhere
Acrylic and ink on canvas.
120 x 180cm.
