Oil Painting

Bridie O’Brien

Bridie O’Brien is an Australian landscape artist whose work blends abstract realism with contemporary impressionism.

Artist Profile

Bridie O’Brien is a visual artist and lifelong musician, raised on a working farm in country NSW, Australia. After graduating from the Australian Institute of Music in 1998, she pursued a music career that carried her across continents. She earned a Diploma in Entertainment Design (Illustration) in 2005 and was accepted into the National Art School the following year, though her path ultimately led elsewhere. For the next fifteen years she lived a life shaped by sound and travel, from busking on the streets of Scotland to living on a remote Caribbean island. In 2019 she toured nationally with Icehouse, The Church, Mental As Anything, and The Sunnyboys while playing lead guitar for Do Ri Mi. Her thirties brought a turning point during her work as an audio engineer at the Art Gallery of NSW, where overseeing lectures immersed her in the world of art once more. Walking those halls reignited a calling she could no longer ignore.

Since 2020 she has devoted herself to painting the natural world in oil. Working with a palette knife and bold colour, she brings landscapes to life through a language of abstract realism and contemporary impressionism. Her practice is grounded in travel and time outdoors, bushwalking, snow camping, and observing the rhythms of light and land.

Her work has been recognised as a finalist in major national prizes including the Paddington Art Prize, the Lethbridge Landscape Prize, and the National Capital Art Prize. She has exhibited nationally and internationally with shows in Madrid, Austria, and Milan, and her paintings have appeared in magazines and on album covers.

Her creative development has been enriched by self-directed study at some of the world’s great institutions and cultural centres, including the Louvre in France (2019), New York’s gallery circuit (2022), Renaissance collections in Italy (2023), Portugal’s museums (2025), and extensive research travel across continental China and parts of Tibet (2025). Each experience has deepened her commitment to painting as a transformative force.

Every painting she creates is a kind of poem, a dialogue with place, memory, and light. Her aim is to reveal the deep kinship between art and the natural world and the way both invite connection, empathy, and reflection.

After twenty-seven years in Sydney, she has recently settled in Canberra where, surrounded by mountains and bushland, she feels at home and at peace.

Artist Interview

What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?

I work in oil on canvas, primarily using the alla prima technique, applying paint wet on wet to capture the immediacy of light, colour, and movement. I use palette knives and brushes to bring texture, energy, and emotion to the landscapes I paint, creating a dialogue between the land and my own response to it. I chose oil for its richness, depth, and vibrancy. It allows me to convey not just what I see, but what I feel. Every mark is intentional, turning fleeting moments of nature into bold, expressive paintings that reflect mood, memory, and the tactile qualities of the world around me. For me, oil is more than a medium. It is a language through which I sculpt light, atmosphere, and emotion, capturing the spirit of the landscape as I experience it.

How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?

I start with a spark, usually a place, a light, or a feeling I can’t shake. From there, I dive straight in with oils, brushes, and palette knives, building layers wet on wet until the landscape comes alive. Once it feels right, it dries, gets framed, and heads off to galleries. The process is messy, intuitive, and a little wild, just like the landscapes themselves.

Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?

My studio is a converted double garage at my home in Conder, ACT.