About the Artist

SelfPortrait-SmallNight2014Victoria Austen-Young lives on the beautiful NSW Central Coast of Australia, and is a General Member of Art Studios Co-operative.

After a career that started in IT and moved through interactive new media, animation, illustration & graphic design, Victoria started studying art part-time & earned a Diploma in Fine Art at TAFE. Shortly thereafter she turned her focus to parenthood (while still freelancing in graphic design), before emerging to resume her artistic journey.

Discovering the then-newly-formed Central Coast Art Studios Co-operative in 2014 – first as a workshop attendee, then a volunteer member, she started exhibiting & selling her work and is now a full member with a studio at the co-op. Victoria is closely involved with the co-op’s collaborative multi-year “Australian Spirit” project, and also runs the monthly figure-drawing sessions at the co-op (more information on both can be found at the co-op’s website link, above).

Victoria accepts portrait commissions, and her art is in private and corporate collections and she held her first solo exhibition, “GLIMPSE”, at the Art Studios Gallery in August 2015. Her second solo exhibition, “ELEMENTAL“, was in November 2016. Her third solo will be in 2018.

Artist Statement

I enjoy using tactile charcoal and mixed media to explore light and tone, with limited palettes when in colour.

Using light & shadow to reveal form is particularly satisfying, especially in people – portraits and figures – frequently in extreme close-up.

I am now striving for more impressionistic representation than realistic, and I also enjoy delving into surrealism to bring more narrative and metaphor into my images.

Recently my work has evolved into a combination of traditional and digital media, where my past digital design skills incorporate my new analog art as ingredients.

Artist CV

Solo Exhibitions

Elemental, Art Studios Gallery – November 9-20 2015
Glimpse
, Art Studios Gallery – August 19-30 2015

Group Exhibitions

Eclectic Collection, Art Studios Gallery – March 2018
Then & Now
Art Studios Gallery – April 2017
Australian Spirit
ANZAC Day @ Wyee Doyalson RSL Club, & Art Studios Gallery for April 2017
Small Works Art Prize,
 Art Studios Gallery – December 2016
50 Shades of Art
(Co-op’s 50th exhibition), Art Studios Gallery – July 2016
Australian Spirit,
ANZAC Day @ Diggers @ The Entrance, & Art Studios Gallery for April 2016
Small Works Art Prize,
Art Studios Gallery – December 2015
Artists’ Reveal,
Art Studios Gallery – June 2015
Australian Spirit,
ANZAC Day @ Gosford RSL, then Art Studios Gallery for May 2015
Moments
, Art Studios Gallery – April 2015
Stories, Art Studios Gallery – January 2015
Small Works Art Prize, Art Studios Gallery – December 2014
Figuratively Speaking, Art Studios Gallery – June 2014
Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Art Gallery – 2006
Hatched – Graduating Students Exhibition, Hornsby TAFE – 2005

Formal Art Education

Diploma of Fine Arts, Hornsby TAFE – 2002-2005

Informal Art Education

Drawing from Human Anatomy (with dissected wet specimens in the Anatomy Lab)
@ UNSW (Teachers: Susan Dorothea White (artist) & Dr Brian Freeman (anatomist)) 2007
Portrait Drawing Course @ LA Academy Of Fine Art (Teacher: Nathan Fowkes) 2013
Charcoal Drawing Workshops @ Art Studios Co-operative (Teacher: Karen Bloomfield) 2014

Memberships

Art Studios Co-operative –  Full Studio Member 2018+
Art Studios Co-operative – General Member 2015-2018
NAVA – Premium Member
Art Studios Co-operative – Volunteer Member 2014-2015
Gosford Regional Art Gallery – Volunteer 2006-07