Sally Bourke

I have become completely indulged in the work of Australian portrait artist, Sally Bourke. Bursting with colour and vibrancy- Bourke paints the most extraordinary distorted and unsettling portraits. Like many artists nowadays I found her work on Instagram, and became instantly obsessed and fascinated when I saw her work. Although, many of her paintings are so vibrant, and warm in their use of colour- this strongly juxtaposes with their unsettling, and almost terrifying facial appearances. But what is most interesting about her works, is that each painting retains its own personality, and style. 

When describing how she creates these portraits Bourke explains, 'The faces and scenes that I portray in my work are attempts to make reconciliation with my past, live in my present, and imagine the future. I paint people from the inside out'- I found this sentence rather beautiful. I also find that in my own work I like to also paint from memory of people- but not just how I perceive them from the outside, but from the inside too. 

From researching many of Sally Bourke's different, and unusual pieces- I hope that I can produce work as interesting, and unusual in the very near future. Her work has also made me think about producing a series of portraits on a larger scale, which is something that i have not experimented with yet. 

These are some of my most favourited works by Bourke. 

'You Know I dreamed About You' 

'The Other You'- Oil and Acrylic on archival mount board. 

There's something almost childlike about this composition; although, it is so disturbing and ominous in it's appearance- there's also a sort of warmness that this painting portrays. Bourke's use of colour in this image is so imaginative- depicting vibrant pinks and deep blues, which merge into this characters long black hair. The features also make this painting so compelling- it's like we're trying to make out who this character could be underneath this mask of paint. 

see through to this nightmarish smile that lies underneath the paint. 

Home Duties- Oil on Ampersand. 

'The Green Lady' - Oil on archival mount board. 

'The Green Lady' provides such a powerful intensity of vibrant lime green which is juxtaposed by the stark contrast of the luminous dark background; it almost appears as if this green lady has suddenly submerged from the darkness. Looking closer at this image we can also see that there is a very subtle light red, faintly outlining around the woman's hair. Bourke has clearly tried not to idealise this image- which is shown through through the harsh texture of the skin, which appears to be sort of carelessly smeared on. This unsettling element is reemphasised by the two beady black eyes, staring straight at us.