about doug
Doug Wright was born in Ballarat in 1944. Between 1963 - 1964 he studied at Ballarat School of Mines Art School and in 1965 - 1966 at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, resulting in a Diploma of Art (Fine Art Painting). From 1974 he has had over 20 solo exhibitions and in 1993 a survey exhibition, which travelled Victorian Regional Galleries.
He has exhibited in major group exhibitions including the Swan Hill Pioneer Art Award (Highly commended) 1978; ‘8 Ballarat Artists’, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Mornington Peninsula drawing Prize Exhibition; Inez Hutchison Prize, Melbourne (Highly commended); Swan Hill Pioneer Purchase Art Award (Purchased 1984); Wynne Prize Exhibitions, Art Gallery of N.S.W; Hugh Williamson Prize Exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; ACAF 2,3,4,5,6.
Collections include National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, New Parliament House Collection, Canberra; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; University of Ballarat; Swan Hill Regional Gallery of Contemporary Art; Maryvale Art Foundation; Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre; Artbank; AMP Collection; IBM Collection, Brisbane; Robert Holmes a Court Collection; Ansett Collection; Tricom Corporation, Melbourne; Shell Company of Australia; Arthur Anderson Co; Philip Morris Collection; University of Melbourne; La Trobe University; University of Tasmania; Burwood State College (Deakin University); Western Mining Co.; Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences (La Trobe University), Melbourne; Private collections in Australia, France, Italy and Singapore.
Doug Wright is now a full-time painter having retired as Senior Lecturer in charge of Painting at The University of Ballarat.
His early training was in traditional landscape painting, predominantly in watercolour: over the years and since working in oil, there has been a gradual refinement of those early approaches and a general move towards abstraction and the 'field' works where the complexity of surface marks creates an atmosphere.
Doug finds atmosphere very important in establishing a mood in the work. This can shift subtly from painting to painting by the gradual shift of colours. The complex layered paint surfaces enables Doug to control the luminosity and translucency of the paint which in turn alters the atmospheric feel of the work.
In more recent years, the time spent working in both Scotland and Australia has made
It clear how important a feel of the space that surrounds and envelops you, impacts noticeably on the way ideas are borne out in painting. Light, atmosphere, the energy of people, the this and that of memory transform the appearance of art; in other words it is the way ideas are magnified and clarified. How your actual being is signified in the painting.
The creation of meaning in the work hangs by a delicate thread, bound up in paint, the metaphors of signs and symbols, all attempting to make a conduit complete between the artist, the painting and the spectator. I sometimes refer to this as the fragile triangle.
He has exhibited in major group exhibitions including the Swan Hill Pioneer Art Award (Highly commended) 1978; ‘8 Ballarat Artists’, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Mornington Peninsula drawing Prize Exhibition; Inez Hutchison Prize, Melbourne (Highly commended); Swan Hill Pioneer Purchase Art Award (Purchased 1984); Wynne Prize Exhibitions, Art Gallery of N.S.W; Hugh Williamson Prize Exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; ACAF 2,3,4,5,6.
Collections include National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, New Parliament House Collection, Canberra; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; University of Ballarat; Swan Hill Regional Gallery of Contemporary Art; Maryvale Art Foundation; Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre; Artbank; AMP Collection; IBM Collection, Brisbane; Robert Holmes a Court Collection; Ansett Collection; Tricom Corporation, Melbourne; Shell Company of Australia; Arthur Anderson Co; Philip Morris Collection; University of Melbourne; La Trobe University; University of Tasmania; Burwood State College (Deakin University); Western Mining Co.; Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences (La Trobe University), Melbourne; Private collections in Australia, France, Italy and Singapore.
Doug Wright is now a full-time painter having retired as Senior Lecturer in charge of Painting at The University of Ballarat.
His early training was in traditional landscape painting, predominantly in watercolour: over the years and since working in oil, there has been a gradual refinement of those early approaches and a general move towards abstraction and the 'field' works where the complexity of surface marks creates an atmosphere.
Doug finds atmosphere very important in establishing a mood in the work. This can shift subtly from painting to painting by the gradual shift of colours. The complex layered paint surfaces enables Doug to control the luminosity and translucency of the paint which in turn alters the atmospheric feel of the work.
In more recent years, the time spent working in both Scotland and Australia has made
It clear how important a feel of the space that surrounds and envelops you, impacts noticeably on the way ideas are borne out in painting. Light, atmosphere, the energy of people, the this and that of memory transform the appearance of art; in other words it is the way ideas are magnified and clarified. How your actual being is signified in the painting.
The creation of meaning in the work hangs by a delicate thread, bound up in paint, the metaphors of signs and symbols, all attempting to make a conduit complete between the artist, the painting and the spectator. I sometimes refer to this as the fragile triangle.
