Masterfully painted, exquisitely detailed and completely original watercolour bird art. Guaranteed to take your breath away!
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ABOUT FRANCES
Born in Armidale NSW in 1965, watercolour bird artist Frances McMahon has lived in Canberra for most of her life.
Since the age of five she firmly decided that she was going to paint birds, and since then has had an undying and passionate obsession in capturing the beauty of our Australian native species.
Frances is entirely self-taught and being a keen bird photographer, uses reference material of her own.
She sold her first painting when she was fourteen, to renowned artist Paul Ashton Delprat, principal of the Julian Ashton Art School.
Developed over many years, her self-taught technique consists of airbrushed backgrounds, with the main work completed in watercolour and gouache. Using a minute brush, her elaborate paintings may take weeks to complete. Her extraordinary technique is time-consuming but straightforward: an initial pale wash is then worked many times over with tiny strokes of the brush, building up depth and form. Many of the details are so fine they may only be seen with a magnifying glass.
Ensuring the longevity of her work, only the highest quality materials are used, including artist's quality lightfast paints and 2000gsm (8 ply) Rising museum board for the ground.
Her commissioned works hang in private collections in Australia, New York, Minnesota and Ontario, Canada.
Since October 2021, she is now working as a professional artist. Her original paintings are now represented by Morpeth Gallery (NSW) exclusively.
For further information, please visit her official website:
www.francesmcmahon.com
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TESTIMONIALS
"It's a faultless painting. Its technique is spot on. The birds are lively, lighting is wonderful and very tricky. The structure of the birds is exactly right. The habitat is excellent."
~ Guest judge Peter Marsack
BEST IN SHOW WINNER
Holmes Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art 2022
"Showing Off" (Sulphur-crested Cockatoos)
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"Frances McMahon from Canberra uses brushes with just a few hairs in each. As a result, her work is painstakingly slow, but the detail is remarkable."
~ Trevor Richards OAM
(Director, Morpeth Gallery)
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"Frances you are fantastic, (your work) reminds me of a friend of mine, Raymond Ching. Really well done...not many people out there with your ability. Congratulations."
Graeme Stevenson
(Professional Artist and producer of "Colour in Your Life" TV series)