VANESSA PLAYFORD • PAINTER
SYDNEY • AUSTRALIA

Vanessa Playford is a painter who lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

Originally from South Australia, Vanessa draws on her rich cultural history of growing up in the Adelaide Hills with a Lithuanian heritage, which influences her eclectic look at the world.

Vanessa's pathway to becoming an artist was a long one and prior to her current practice she worked for many years as a lawyer, followed by a time in legal and academic publishing. She proudly considers herself to be an "outsider" artist, as she is for the most part self-taught. After a brief period of art courses, she quickly abandoned formal training, preferring to pursue her own journey into abstraction. 

Particularly after the death of her brother, she turned to abstract painting to investigate the many forms of emotion and space within the human condition, and that which lies beyond in the energy of the multiverse. The tension between meditative observation and dynamic energy is offered through a myriad of colours, tones, and paint applications, from wispy flickers to determined impasto strokes. 

Complimenting Vanessa's abstract practice is a series of figurative works based on tribal masks and objects. Her interest comes from travels to New Mexico, South America, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and North Africa, as well as an education in Oceanic and North American tribal arts, including visits to the incredible annual Parcours des Mondes tribal art fair in Paris.

She has had a visceral response to these powerful works from First Nations peoples and sees them as vehicles for important storytelling, strength and status. 

WORK @ DEA

Vanessa has long been a supporter and customer of DEA, so we were thrilled when we discovered her considerable talents as an artist.