Andrea Huelin Everyday

Andrea Huelin is a Cairns-based artist whose still-life paintings capture, with an incisive clarity and attention to detail, everyday objects that surround us in our daily lives. However, in this major solo exhibition, Huelin experiments with new techniques and moves beyond portrayals of objects to capturing people at work and leisure, aiming to communicate fleeting moments of ordinary life, which is a recurring theme in her work. Huelin explains that she began working on this series of new works by describing the boxy shapes and fluoro colours of people in their work uniforms and, from there, went on to seek inspiration from other familiar sights around the streets of Cairns.

I am approaching painting the figures in a similar way to my still life paintings – abbreviating details, yet aiming for a satisfying sharpness and sparkle. Of course, with people comes the challenge of communicating human attitudes, energy and movement, with which I aim to convey simple narratives like teamwork, concentration or boredom.

This new body of works shows Huelin’s skill in observation and her affection for the modest, familiar things of everyday life. 

Image: Andrea HUELIN, Guys Looking Up 2017, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist