About

Watson Broadfoot is a Sydney-based contemporary artist whose paintings explore erosion, memory and environmental fragility through layered abstraction. Working with acrylic and mixed media, her practice investigates the traces left by weather, time and human presence through processes of layering, veiling, scraping and removal.

Broadfoot holds a Master of Contemporary Art from the University of Melbourne and has returned to sustained studio practice following a thirty-year career in international management consulting, governance and leadership roles. Her work has been selected for the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize and Mosman Art Prize, and she has been a finalist in the St Columba Art Prize, Mosman Rowers Art Prize and Northern Beaches Gallery Art Prize. She exhibits regularly throughout Australia.

Contact her via email at: watsonbroadfoot@gmail.com

 

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Artist Statement

My practice explores the traces left by weather, time and human presence. Through layered abstraction, I investigate processes of erosion, accumulation and change, creating works that sit between landscape, memory and material history.

Working with acrylic and mixed media, I build surfaces through repeated cycles of layering, veiling, scraping and removal. Earlier marks remain visible beneath subsequent layers, allowing the paintings to retain evidence of their own making.

While references to shoreline, horizon and landscape occasionally emerge, the work is less concerned with describing a specific place than with evoking the experience of place—its fragility, instability and persistence. Atmospheric fields, fractured surfaces and mineral-like textures become a means of exploring what is retained, what is lost and what continues to endure.

Ultimately, the work considers how time leaves its mark on landscapes, memory and the surfaces we inhabit.

Selected Awards

  • Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize – Selected Artist
  • Mosman Art Prize – Selected Artist
  • St Columba Art Prize – Finalist
  • Mosman Rowers Art Prize – Finalist
  • Northern Beaches Gallery Art Prize – Finalist
  • Fiona Myer Foundation,  Winner
  • Alliance Francais Melbourne Winner

Selected Exhibitions

  • Northern Beaches Gallery
  • First Sentier Workplace Exhibition
  • Mona Vale Creative Space – Shared Ground Exhibition
  • Victorian Artists Society – Landscape Exhibition
  • Margaret Lawrence Gallery

Education

  • Master of Contemporary Art, University of Melbourne
  • Postgraduate Diploma of Visual Arts, Victorian College of the Arts
  • Diploma of Visual Arts, Victoria University
  • Ceramics, Northern Beaches TAFE
  • Other qualifications include an MBA, Monash University and B(Bus)