Meet our campaign artist: Nell Symonds

Each year, we select an artwork to feature in our campaigns. In 2024, Nell Symonds takes the spotlight with her bold lemon artwork titled ‘Chiara’. We were lucky to have the chance to chat with Nell about her art journey and painting techniques used to create her eye-catching citrus artwork.

Known for her bold still-life paintings, Nell is a Western Australian artist who loves spending time in the Australian bush. Her paintings have been much-loved at our Australian fairs, and she is a frequent feature at The Toowoomba Gallery stand.

You, too, can have the opportunity to chat with Nell while relaxing in our Lemon Lounge, enjoying a slice of lemon cake at Affordable Art Fair Sydney from 13 – 16 June.

Hi Nell, can you tell us more about your journey as an artist?

I could always draw, but growing up I didn’t feel I was weird enough to be an artist. I also didn’t know anyone who had a career in the arts. I had a hard time getting into colour and didn’t like the feel of acrylics. In my early 30s I had the chance to paint with oils and I was sold on it from the get go. The buttery good feeling and deep rich colours.

We are big fans of your eye-catching citrus paintings, what inspired you to start this series?

A family holiday to Italy. The lovely Mediterranean water, olive groves and, of course, the citrus. Lemons especially have a beautiful freshness to them. I am generally not attracted to happy colours, but yellow is an exception to the rule.

Your palettes show an importance placed on mixing custom shades, rather than using paint straight from the tube. Can you tell us more about the impact that this has on your paintings?

I have a long enduring love for Prussian Blue, but it is transparent, so to give it some depth I mix it with Cad Orange and a tiny bit of White. I am usually striving for deep rich colours, which often requires mixing. I’m not opposed to using colour straight out of the tube, I just think mixing helps to know colour more intimately, and extends the options for creating a certain feeling.

We are excited to have you live painting onsite while at the fair as an artist in action. What can people expect to see you paint during their visit?

Lemons of course! Painting in front of an audience will be a new experience for me. I’ll probably just talk too much and not paint enough, I suspect. I get in trouble at a lot of art events for talking too much, but you know when you get art people together we just get carried away.

Join us at the third edition of Affordable Art Fair Sydney (13 – 16 June 2024) to see Nell’s work up close at The Toowoomba Gallery‘s stand.