TNBT - Finalist - Raphe Coombes- The Kookaburra warning call before the flames
109 x 99cm
Oil and Graphite on board
Based in Glen Innes northern NSW my practice involves painting and drawing inspired by landscape, energy, connection, history and sound and how they integrate together creates my distinctive imagery. I use an array of techniques and robust colours to convey my abstracted world.
Working with traditional oil making methods; creating walnut and stand oil from old masters’ recipes and grinding pigments to generate colours. His work is predominantly on board the grain of the timber often acting as a ground informing his practice. Playing with impasto marks and the viscosity of paint, the artist brings us to a strong connection with the expressionist painters of the past.
Raphe’s works are delightfully layered with colour and energetic marks. With pops of red, yellow and purple echoing blooming flowers, sweeps of blue indicating moving water and delightful scrawling’s of bird flight paths taking the viewer on a dance around the surface. The immediacy of the mark making is key here, building on the dynamics and energy of the work creating a thrilling zing of life, intimacy and emotional punch.
My work is based on time I spent at Wytaliba in the Gibraltar Rangers winter of 2022 and is to highlight the importance of cultural burning in this country.
After learning of the devastating firers that ripped through the area in 2019 consuming homes and lives this old wisdom was the catalyse for my submitted work “The Kookaburra call before the flames”
I hope you enjoy my work