Loribelle Spirovski’s career is rising. Fast. Although she only began painting seriously about five years ago, in just over the last two she won the Cambridge Studio Gallery Art prize and has been a finalist in 18 other art competitions including the Black Swan Art Prize, Muswellbrook Art Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award and was semi finalist twice in the Doug Moran National Portrait prize.
She will be showing her work in three solo shows and two group shows over the next 12 months.
Born in the Philippines, Spirovski came to Australia when she was nine and studied to become an art teacher, never imagining she could become a practising artist. However, she soon realised teaching was not for her, and during a period of despondency, took to painting.
She has not turned back. Relentlessly researching renowned artists and their techniques she has embarked on an exciting path of exploration, constantly taking risks and producing impressive works along the way.
In this interview she talks about how she taught herself to paint, the struggles she faced and why the rejection of her painting ‘Vers la Flamme‘ for the Archibald prize in 2015 was to cause her to rethink her whole approach.
We also discuss how she met her partner, acclaimed concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi, who has become her muse and source of much of her subject matter and how their relationship and the music in their lives has impacted her work.
Click here to see a short video of Loribelle Spirovski on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel.
Upcoming events
- Solo show at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, NSW
- Group show ‘Emerging 2017’ with Gosford Regional Gallery, East Gosford, NSW, 8 April – 21 May 2017
- Group show ‘Practise what you teach’, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, NSW, 29 April – 4 June 2017
- Solo exhibition arising from current residency with Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, Sydney, NSW – date TBA
- Solo show with Cambridge Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria – date TBA
Links to things we talk about on the show
- Loribelle Spirovski
- Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
- Olsen Gallery
- Photorealism
- Black Swan Prize
- Portia Geach Memorial Award
- Cambridge Studio Gallery Art prize
- Diego Velazquez
- John Singer Sargent
- Ray Turner
- Simon Tedeschi
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Alexander Scriabin
- Sergei Rachmaninoff
- Synaesthesia
- Olivier Messiaen
- Loribelle Spirovski on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel (below)
‘Etudes’, oil on canvas and linen, 40 x 30cm each, finalist, Mosman Art Prize 2016
‘Vers la Flamme’, oil on canvas, 120 x 90cm We talk about this painting at 17:50 of the interview.
‘Memento Mori – Mens Rea’ oil on canvas, 61 x 76cm
‘Simon’, 2017, oil on linen, 51 x 51cm Winner Cambridge Studio Gallery Portrait Prize 2017.
‘Hell-tempered clavier’, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120cm
‘Homme 8’, oil and acrylic on canvas paper, 29 x 42cm
‘Icarus’ oil on panel, 41 x 41cm
‘Femme’ triptych, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas paper, finalist Wyndham art prize
‘Mother and Child’ 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas 120 x 90cm
Works on paper, all pen, 21 x 29cm, clockwise from top left: Mohawk, Sketch after Bacon, Hunger 1, When two become one, Scream, Pieta
‘Black widow’, Copic marker and pen on paper, 21 x 29cm
‘Time Traveller’ 2015, oil on canvas, 120 x 60cm This was the painting accepted as a semi-finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. It’s discussed in the interview at 12:15
What an amazingly interesting podcast! I listened to it repeatedly. Such insight shown by someone so young. I love her work and the interview was sensitive, not at all self indulgent and evocative.. Such passion can only inspire one to greater things