Lucy Gray is a Perth-based artist, specializing in ocean-inspired paintings. She is multi-talented in her artistic applications and also has a range of botanical paintings & drawings.
Go to shop to purchase your own Lucy Gray original artwork or an archival quality print.
Lucy is an award-winning professional artist and educator, who lives in Mandurah, Perth. Her painting practice has been primarily focussed on expressing emotional stories where the ocean is the storyteller. “These portraits of the ocean are simultaneously portraits of the viewer, as the story that the ocean expresses resonates with their own experiences.” Lucy’s oceanic paintings are not your traditional seascapes, but rather an abstract view of the ocean. They invite the viewer right into the ocean itself; it’s volatility, turbulence, surges, gentleness, ebbs and flows. Lucy also paints & draws native Australian botanicals. She is interested in learning about the threatened banksia habitats in Western Australia and enjoys exploring this through her art production.
Lucy qualified with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town in 2005 and is now living in Perth, Western Australia. She has exhibited in South Africa and Australia, and recently won first place in the 9x5 Mandurah Art Show 2022. Lucy has expanded her art career and now educates others through her workshops and courses. Head to events to learn more….
Lucy is a mum of 4 children, and is married to a surfer-accountant. She counts herself blessed to live south of Perth right near the beach and extended family.
artist statement
a brief introduction…
“I love how peaceful your paintings make me feel.”
inspiration
I was born into a family of ocean-lovers.
My father and mother met at their uni yacht club and both sailed crews in the Cape to Rio yacht race in the 1960s. Fast forward to the 1980s, they are married with 5 kids, three of those are triplets. I am one of those triplets. At the age of 3, I went on an epic sailing journey on the open ocean for 90 days, aboard our family’s 39ft yacht, skippered by my legendary parents. We left the shores off the east coast of South Africa, skirted the coast of Madagascar, and ventured to islands such as Reunion, Mauritius and the Seychelles. I learnt to swim in the ocean. I experienced the tropical calms, the unending horizon of the open ocean with nothing else around you, sunsets while the yacht bobs up and down while moored in a gentle bay, and variety of ocean storms. I got to sail with my parents a few more times in my life, and appreciate the ocean through my older eyes, but with no less wonder. When I retell my childhood I sometimes can’t believe I lived these extraordinary moments. The ocean is in my blood. It is my inspiration.
background
As a child I was greatly inspired by my late grandmother ("ouma"), Ellaphie Ward-Hillhorst, an internationally recognised botanical artist. I cherished my visits to her little attic studio in Cape Town, and walks through the veld with her while she looked for plant sample cuttings to take home to study and paint. In retrospect, this greatly impacted how I was drawn to highly detailed, defined, realistic art. My ouma also had a background as a naturalist artist mentored by her Dutch uncle, as well as being a graphic designer and typographer. My own path as an artist has been interesting - I studied alongside my triplet brother at art school, we were always pushing each other to be more creative - I tried my hand at freelance illustration as a graduate, amateur calligraphy and did research & development for a goldsmith using my printmaking background to experiment with embossing jewellery. I took an administration job to just get on my feet, and kept painting in my spare time. After 4 years of marriage I became a mother and kept painting as much as I could while raising my children. In 2015 I moved to Australia with my husband and children and started exploring the incredible Perth coastlines and beautiful native botanicals - what a treasure! It seems my inspiration has come full circle. I now produce art from my home studio and feel very blessed to be able to dedicate my working hours to my craft and passion.
process
As an art student, I chose Painting and Print-media as my major practical subjects. These diverse art-making methods have lead me to a varied art-making process of painting and drawing.
My paintings are realistic in treatment, I mostly use acrylic paint on canvas, and am looking forward to gaining increased experience in oil colours. Until just very recently, my children were very young and I couldn’t close-off my studio space, so a wet oil painting was just a no-no. I have now got a studio with a door (winning!) and my children are less inquisitive about wet paints and have learnt to respect their mum’s home studio. My painting process is all about layering. I lay a basic painting-sketch, block in basic colours and tonal values, then come the yummy, fine details and glazing techniques which I so dearly love.
My botanical drawings and watercolour paintings are highly detailed. To achieve such fine hand-drawn detail, I use Japanese Sakura micron pigment ink pens, with incredibly fine nibs down to 0.03mm. I have increased my botanical range to include realistically rendered watercolour paintings of our beautiful Western Australian native botanicals such as the eucalypts, corymbias and banksias.
I collect reference photographs for all my work by going for bush-walks, beach-walks and using Go-Pro footage from coastal holidays. I have a large monitor in my studio and ample good lighting, so I can enlarge my photographs without hurting my eyes. Great reference material and good lighting ensure my studio setup is optimal for a excellent quality artwork.
