The Embrace

Artist Statement: Paintings tell stories. There are lovers hiding here, embracing each other as though the world doesn't exist and all around them is love like red.

This work is Acrylic 95 cm X 100 cm on 100% professional quality canvas, signed on the front and sent with an artist CV and certificate of authenticity. The work is sent in a roll ready for stretching - this is taken into account in the price. To get a quote for stretching from your framer you just need to give them the measurements of the work. I send this work out in a roll as it is the safest way to send a large work.

The work is sealed with a conservationist Gloss Varnish  which provides a beautiful finish for the paint and is long lasting so gives the painting posterity for many hundreds of years and the conservationist quality varnish is essential as it doesn't yellow or crack with light and age and means that you can wipe the painting free of dust with a damp cloth if you need to which will also preserve its life.

The painting is painted on the sides so if hung stretched without an exterior frame it will still look lovely from any angle (no ugly white sides). I actually hang all large works in my house without exterior frames because I feel that allows the paintings to continue beyond its borders. But this is just my personal preference so I have included some images with different frames. If you want a frame you are asking your farmer for stretching and framing.
If you decide to add an exterior frame I suggest choosing a frame that matches your home rather than matching the painting. ie if you have natural timber choose a timber frame, if you have a lot of white trim choose a white frame.

Please you must measure your space! I try to make the images as representative as possible to the size of the work but this is not a replacement for measuring your own space. Its expensive for the artists who pay for the freight to send work out even in a roll so please do carefully measure your space.

All work over 100cm is sent via Pack and Send and under 100cm is sent via Australia Post Express.

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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. In 2026 she has been a finalist in The Doyles Prize, the very prestigious Lester Portrait Prize and shortlisted in the Lethbridge. 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:

The Lester Portrait Prize 2026

The Doyles, 2026

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.