Showcase: Edward Inchbold

Erin Irwin takes a closer look at these outstanding works.

The work: Edward Inchbold, Friday, 2021. Oil on canvas, 80 x 70cm. Courtesy: the artist.

Arcs of gold and white demarcate an internalised vision of Sydney’s Centennial Park in Edward Inchbold’s work Friday, making physical a memory through gestural strokes of oil. Dedicated to his best friend and partner Bec, with whom he spent much time with beneath the paperbark trees before she moved abroad, this painting aims to capture a fleeting moment in time spent picnicking on the grass. The landscape – which the artist no longer visits even though it sits just beyond his front door – becomes mnemonic of a period in his life, and thus is no longer a physical place but a mental one. “I aimed to paint the park as it feels to be in it,” says Inchbold, “to suggest light and landscape and to record moments of personal biography.”

Thick layers of paint move about the canvas, articulating a blend of shapes that echo transitions between grass and the paths that wind their way around the space. Soft edges abut one another, sometimes blending at the seams, as if the memory has aged and blurred with time. Friday is not just a tribute to his time with Bec, but a testament to the impact our psyche has on our perceptions of the world, and how memory alters one’s experience of the physical world with the echoes of lived existence.

More Showcases from Recent issues

Showcase: Rebecca Dzartov

Representing the ineffable aspects of God has been a goal of artists across thousands of years, each bringing their own skills and belief systems to their art. The practice of Melbourne-based artist Rebecca Dzartov is informed not just by her faith, but also by her work as a tattoo artist. In Jam Doughnut, we see […]

Showcase: Helena Newcombe

Based in the Hunter Valley, mixed-media artist Helena Newcombe is familiar with the enduring beauty of the Australian landscape. However, in her practice the artist chooses to transport her viewer to unfamiliar terrains, tracing the dips and curves of an imagined universe with paint and thread. In The Daylight Basin, we see a vast mountain […]

Showcase: Waqeea Chaudhry

The work of Sydney-based artist Waqeea Chaudhry comes from a place of emotional vulnerability, her paintings forming a visceral link between the viewer’s experiences and her own. In Bereft we see that, while the artist has delighted in a life lived abroad, she is unafraid to linger on the hardships that come with this lifestyle […]

Showcase: Roy B Wilkins

A striking combination of bold line and layered motifs, Toby by London-born, Melbourne-based artist Roy Wilkins is the coalescence of the artist’s instinctual approach to mark-making and his environment. Embracing a truly expressionist style, the artist works and reworks his large canvases, applying acrylic atop spray paint on stencil and pastel. An artwork seemingly finished […]

Showcase: Hayley Smith “The Hayley Co”

Site-specificity is key to Perth-based artist Hayley Smith’s practice, given she uses the site as a canvas for her work. Executing large scale murals, Smith’s objective is to create works that are accessible to the wider community, engaging with and serving their audience. For Atomic Blast, which the artist painted alongside Susan Respinger, Smith looked […]

Showcase: Kai Hagberg

Works by Finland-born, Far North Queensland-based artist Kai Hagberg preserve moments of transition, his figural practice the product of decades professional discipline. Whether it is a face shifting between expressions, or a mind drifting between thoughts, Hagberg’s paintings forcefully evoke the ephemeral nature of emotion.  In Flight of Fancy, we see his ability to capture […]