Bronwen Hunt

I grew up in Eltham, Victoria. An area rich in artistry as well as natural beauty. As long as I can recall, I enjoyed drawing and was encouraged in my early endeavours from schoolteachers and others.

Like many, the practicalities of life; of raising four children, of school runs and making sandwiches soon dominates one’s time. However, even in the seemingly mundane there are riches to be discovered. Consoling children over, a bad haircut, a difficult day at school, or the larger reality of real loss and grief, kept me in touch with the everyday and helped to shape themes which would later emerge in my art.

Local courses and casual intensives allowed me some opportunity to develop my technique, but it took some time to settle on a medium that would satisfy both my desired outcome and my need for flexibility. Early on I dabbled in pastels, acrylics, scratchboard and even glass fusing and slumping.
 
Around seven years ago I decided it was time to dedicate real time to my art practice and began classes with Ron Reynolds. At that time, I was working with ink on paper. In order to loosen up my drawing style, he took me outside to find a rough piece of bark from a mulch pile. Taking me back inside he said, 'Try that.'

That was the stretch I needed. Playing with different styles, and trying a number of different mediums, I began to settle on oil with a cold wax medium on board. Where possible, I start with observational sketches on site and then revisit these in my studio. Whilst remaining largely figurative, my work now pays homage to contemporary art theory and is influenced by the likes of, Andrew Wyatt, Van Gough, Fred Williams, Marino Marini, Mark Rothko, Margaret Preston and Edward Schiele.
 
My subject matter is quite diverse and includes landscape, figure, still life and animal studies. My influences here are also easily traced. My husband’s work has afforded me the opportunity to travel extensively and enjoy a range of diverse experiences on almost every continent. But there’s no place like home and we now live on a semi-rural property in Melbourne’s outer north-east where my studio looks out onto a valley. Surrounded by so many natural delights, inspiration is not hard to find.