Magpie Lookout

Australian Magpie at dusk looking out across a valley, can you hear him carolling before he takes flight?
My intention is to keep my paintings in the spirit of a sketch, to capture the energy and unpredictability of nature within a flat painting.

This large statement painting features both Intuitive, audacious paint application followed by many hours of careful intricate precise mark making. I relish the tension and contradiction of these competing factors within the work. Patterning inspired by Japanese ornament creates a sense of movement within the landscape.

© Copyright Watermark: You may notice a very faint © Copyright watermark across the first image. This only appears on my main digital file to protect my artwork from being downloaded and reproduced without my permission (it happens unfortunately).

I do try to make them as discreet as possible so as not to upset your delicate eye area. I promise your painting or print will not have a visible watermark all over it. I do include several cropped in shots of my work without a watermark in the gallery so you can clearly see the works close up.

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Floriosa is the botanical painting practice of Australian artist Sally Browne.
I've been making art for as long as I can remember. What was meant to be a one-year trip from the UK to Sydney in 1994 somehow became a permanent move, and Australia has been home ever since.
Much of my work begins outdoors. I love wandering through suburban streets noticing flowering trees, plants spilling over fences, unexpected colour combinations and the small details that most of us walk straight past. I often come home with armfuls of flowers, seedpods and odd little cuttings that eventually find their way into my paintings.

Although my work begins with observation, it rarely stays there. A vase of flowers, a flowering gum or a bird perched in the garden might provide the starting point, but colour, memory and imagination soon take over. I'm less interested in painting a particular flower than in capturing the feeling of being surrounded by nature.

Before becoming a full-time artist in 2015, I worked in graphic design, surface pattern and printmaking, experiences that continue to influence my love of colour, rhythm and composition. I'm also inspired by the simplicity and spontaneity of Chinese and Japanese ink painting, though over the years my own work has evolved into a looser, more contemporary style.

Alongside Floriosa, I maintain a contemporary fine art practice under my own name, exhibiting regularly throughout Australia. Over the past decade I've been fortunate to place hundreds of original paintings into private collections both here and overseas. These days, if I'm not in the studio, there's a good chance I'm wandering around Sydney with secateurs in my bag, bringing home flowers, seedpods and whatever else catches my eye.