Love Garden VI

Artist Statement: The garden is full of all kinds of love, the children play, we drink tea or gin and yarn.

This painting is Gouache paint, watercolour and Pastel on Rough, Hand Milled, Acid Free, 638 gsm 100% Cotton Paper. The art work measures 26 X 37 cm and the paper measures 29.5 X 38cm to allow for framing. Because the paper is so gloriously thick the work can hand torn around the sides as in the photo shown of another drawing (let me know if you would like this) and then can be framed on top of the mounting board.

The work is sealed with 2 coats of fixative and two coats of gloss varnish to protect it. The work is sent with an artist CV and certificate of authenticity and is initialed on the front and signed on the back. Because the paper is so gloriously thick and hand milled it can't be rolled and so the work is sent flat, covered in glassine paper to protect it while travelling via Australia Post Express. The work is unframed ready for framing.

With framing I suggest choosing a frame that matches your furniture. ie if you have natural timber choose a timber frame, if you have a lot of black trim choose a black frame. But I would never recommend a black or white frame if you don't have a lot of black in your home - normally a soft timber is going to look better. Framing costs vary greatly from framer to framer. I use mobile framing.

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This profile is for Robbi Neals paintings. For Printed works please go to Robbi Printed Works

Robbi Neal is a best selling award winning artist and author. She lives in Ballarat and trained at the Victorian CNeal ollege of the Arts and on finishing Art School won the Footscray Aquisition Prize twice. In 2020 after regularly exhibiting her work in solo shows, raising 5 children, surviving aggressive cancer and just generally letting life get in the way of her own goals she was able to return to full time to painting and writing.
In 2020 she was a finalist in the Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award. In 2021 she was a finalist in the 66th Blake Prize and in 2022 the Ravenswood Prize for Women Artists.
In 2024 she was a finalist in the prestigious Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and in 2025 was shortlisted in the Lethbridge Landscape Prize. Most recently she is a finalist int he 2026 The Doyles Prize. Her latest book 'With Winter Comes Darkness' won the prestigious Daphne Du Maurier Kiss of Death Prize 2025 in USA and Canada.

Robbi has a studio in Ballarat, surrounded by the flora that works its way into her painting. You can find out more about Robbi online through her site.

"Robbi's work explores themes of belonging, memory, and deep connection to Country. Through evocative, layered storytelling, Robbi reflects on place, identity, and the enduring ties between land and spirit and love and community. Her paintings are both personal and universal—offering quiet meditations on home, heritage, and the rhythms of the natural world. Celebrated for their ability to weave narrative and image, Robbi continues to create work that speaks to the heart of connection, belonging and care for Country."- Giorgio Pilla, Redot Gallery Singapore.

Robbi has mixed racial heritage. She is painfully shy, she says she is a hermit. It took her a year to put a photo of herself on her profile that shows her face. She has always suffered from depression which she blames on a childhood rotten enough to write a best selling award winning book about. Sometimes the more miserable she feels the brighter her paintings get as she believes that looking for joy in small things is where we find god. She says her works are her voice and are landscapes grounded in her grandmother’s Country but are also emotional landscapes about connection and belonging and finding the small things in life that are easy to miss but give our lives true meaning and happiness. Robbi loves to explore different ways of creating art, through works on paper and painting on canvas.

.Some of Robbi's shortlisting in major prizes:

Lethbridge Landscape Prize, Shortlisted 2025

Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Finalist 2024

Bluethumbs top seller placing 4th

Lethbridge Small Scale Arts Award, Finalist 2022

Lethbridge Landscape Prize Salon De Refuses` Finalist 2022

Ravenswood Art Prize for Women - Finalist 2022

Footscray Acquisition Prize - Two times winner

Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award - Four times short listed

The 66th Blake Prize - Finalist

Exhibitions have been held in Redot Gallery Singapore, Art Atrium Sydney, Casula Powerhouse Sydney,  Perry Prize Sydney, ROAR Melbourne, Rhumbarella’s Melbourne, Castlemaine Fringe, Lethbridge Gallery Brisbane, Footscray Gallery and Latrobe University Gallery.