Yesim Gozukara

Born in Paris in 1967, I completed all my studies in Ankara, Turkey, including my undergraduate study in Food Engineering at the Middle East Technical University. After moving to Melbourne, I completed a Post Graduate study at Swinburne University of Technology and a Masters in Science at the University of Melbourne. Since then, I have been working as a senior experimental scientist, specialising in materials science with more than 30 years of experience.

My lifelong interest in art started when I was very young. This interest resulted in me winning multiple young artist awards at a young age. During these years, I attended various after school life drawing and art training classes.

Between 1994 and 2000, I took private tuitions from Anthony Sum who introduced me to non-traditional approaches and processes in watercolour. These processes involved using water saturated paper, bold colours, no drawing, and dynamic, spontaneous and expressive brushstrokes which created energetic semi-abstract paintings. Over the following years, I continued to take workshops from many leading artists such as Herman Pekel, David Taylor, Alvaro Castagnet, Ross Patterson, John Orlando-Birt and Linda Kemp to equip myself with a strong foundation of knowledge and technique awareness.

I was also fortunate to attend several workshops offered by Tony Smibert including a master level private tuition at his home studio in Deloraine, Tasmania.

Without a formal education in art, these workshops, particularly the private tuitions that combined both the Eastern and the Western techniques and philosophies have significantly shaped and influenced my work. My own explorations of various techniques incorporating textures in my paintings, particularly experimenting with the granulating pigments helped me to develop my own personal style. Nowadays, I aim to expand the boundaries of the traditional watercolour principles by enjoying the spontaneity and the bold use of the medium and emphasising the textural effects to add excitement, interest, character, depth and dimension into my paintings. I love travelling to seek and connect with the organic design elements of nature inspired subjects. Although I would prefer balancing the experience by painting plein-air, time constraints currently restricts me to be mainly a studio artist.

My paintings have been featured in six solo and numerous group exhibitions such as the National Art and Sculpture Museum, Izmir, the National Gallery of Victoria and has been accepted into prestigious national art shows. I am very fortunate to have my work shown under “The Ten of the Best” category online exhibition at the Camberwell Art Show 2020; selected as the “Featured Artists” in both CAS 2021 and the Mornington Art Show 2022. I won many awards including the “Best Non-Traditional under $1500” category award at the CAS 2021 Show. My work featured in a highly competitive international watercolour publication, the Splash 21 magazine. I am also very honoured to be selected along with another 29 fellow artists to represent Australia this year at the FabrianoInAquarello 2022.

I am also passionate about and currently teaching at the Camberwell Community Centre, the Victorian Artists Society, periodically run Zoom classes for overseas students, and provide demonstrations and workshops. I am a member of AGRA, VAS and WSV.

Yesim Gozukara