Catching Light – Colleen Frances

Over and again, I am drawn to capturing the light. Elusive and everchanging, it can transform subjects in a moment and often, the light is what I remember most acutely about the places I visit.

The abstract expression at the intersection of light and feeling is what I love to put on canvas... the energy of bright light, the otherworldly sense of light through water, the diffuse light before a storm. In Catching Light, I have used bold texture, glazing techniques and leveraged the inherent nature of transparent paint pigments to create both depth and light in each work.

Each painting offers a moment of experience between the viewer and I, a moment of shared familiarity that even in the face of something as transcendental as light, we share common feelings.

Colleen Francis:

Canberra based abstract artist Colleen Frances had her parents reaching for drop sheets when she first wielded a paintbrush aged six and she has painted ever since. Originally educated in oils, Colleen found her niche working in acrylic several years ago and now focuses on creating medium and large-scale abstract acrylic pieces.

With an emphasis on texture, detail and careful use of colour, Colleen’s paintings have been described as “elegantly abstract”, “refined”, “beautifully detailed” and “offering new vignettes in changing light and with each subsequent view”.