The timed auction ends Thursday July 16th at 8:00pm. Whoever holds the highest bid at the auction closing time wins.
Sally Browne
Night Arrangement, 2025
oil on stretched canvas
Height 120 cm x Width 100 cm
Artwork is stretched and ready to hang & comes with a certificate of authenticity
Starting Bid: $1,800
Night Arrangement began with a vase of flowers and gradually loosened as I worked. Some passages remain recognisable, while others are simply marks, colour and movement. I'm interested in that point where a painting stops describing something and starts becoming something in its own right. I love how moody this work feels with its rich black background. The floral(ish) motif on a dark ground is a nod to old Dutch still life paintings, but this contemporary version is far less polite.
Artist Bio: Drawing on a background in textile design and typography, Sally Browne's paintings play with letterforms, shadows, and semi-recognisable figures that hover between meaning and mystery. Influenced by the legacy of abstract expressionism, she embraces chance, imperfection, and the tactile qualities of paint to create works that feel intuitive and handmade in a digital world.
Browne originally trained in textile design in the UK before relocating to Australia in 1994. For over 10 years she worked as an art director in branding, honing a design sensibility that continues to inform her awareness of form, rhythm, and composition. In 2015, Browne left the design industry to focus on her art practice full time, gaining commercial success as a watercolour artist with works licensed and collected internationally. After six years of building that career, she chose to step away from the commercial sphere to pursue painting as a deeper artistic enquiry. In 2021 she commenced a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School, Sydney, where she has focused exclusively on abstraction.
Her paintings emerge through improvisation; beginning in chaos, shaped by gesture, gravity, and chance. Fragments hover at the edge of recognition before dissolving again, reflecting her interest in psychological states and the shifting ground of human experience. Her current body of work marks a new trajectory that moves beyond illustration and design, embracing the instability and possibility of contemporary abstraction.