Libby Wakefield

oil on paper

Whitewall Art Projects (Berrima)

Libby has been making and teaching art for almost 20 years.
She relocated to the Southern Highlands about 10 years ago where she lives with her husband, two daughters and her dog Rembrandt. Here she works with and in the
landscape, rendering in her paintings the timeless theme - connection to water.
At the center of her current body of work is a focus on the ways in which she can
depict local landscape and waterways through the lens of Romanticism, looking at
how the notions of beauty and the sublime can assist reconnections to these local areas.
In these works she is attempting to show a personal, sensual communication with
the river and wetlands, making the expressions of atmosphere, mood and awe
paramount in each painting, as well as striving to express feelings of melancholy and
a yearning for a deeper experience of each place, its broader nature and its role
played in past days.
Libby uses small brushwork and soft, subtle aspects of each riverbank and water
surface to give a sense of place and intimacy to the paintings.
Whilst these works may have a grandeur and borrowed visual language from the
past, they are combined with something else that strives to be both current and
relevant.
Libby has been a finalist in many art prizes including the Waverley Art Prize, the
Fisher Ghost Art Awards, the Wingecarribee Landscape Prize, the Pirtek Still Life
Prize, the David Turnbull Bequest Prize as well as receiving highly commended
awards for both the Norvill Art Prize and the Belle Property Prize.
In 2017 she was invited to be the featured artist in the Goulburn Regional Art
Gallery's Snapshot Exhibition and in 2018 was a Semi- finalist in the NSW Parliament
Plein Air Prize. Her work has been purchased by the Historical Houses Trust, and she
has had many exhibitions and private commissions.
Libby is currently represented by Whitewallart Gallery in Berrima.