The timed auction ends Thursday August 13th at 8:00pm. Whoever holds the highest bid at the auction closing time wins.
Bridie O'Brien
Heart of the Dove, 2023
oil on canvas
Height 100 cm x Width 80 cm
Artwork is framed and ready to hang & comes with a certificate of authenticity
Starting Bid: $3,900
The daguerreotype, introduced in 1839, allowed the first images of twilight's glow, though its long exposure times and delicate nature gave early sunset photos a dreamlike quality.
With technological advances, photographers could capture sunsets more vividly. The advent of colour film in the early 20th century allowed the sky’s vibrant palette to be portrayed fully.
In contrast, painting blends reality and imagination. My brushstrokes and colour choices reveal glimpses of my inner world and how the beauty of a sunset affects me. This contrast between the precision of photography and the creativity of painting enriches my appreciation of sunsets, offering both literal and lyrical perspectives on nature's masterpiece. I loved keeping this one loose and pushing the palette into orange overdrive.
Artist Bio: Bridie O’Brien is a visual artist and lifelong musician, raised on a working farm in country NSW, Australia.
After graduating from the Australian Institute of Music in 1998, she pursued a music career that carried her across continents. She earned a Diploma in Entertainment Design (Illustration) in 2005 and was accepted into the National Art School the following year, though her path ultimately led elsewhere. For the next fifteen years she lived a life shaped by sound and travel, from busking on the streets of Scotland to living on a remote Caribbean island. In 2019 she toured nationally with Icehouse, The Church, Mental As Anything, and The Sunnyboys while playing lead guitar for Do Ri Mi.
Her thirties brought a turning point during her work as an audio engineer at the Art Gallery of NSW, where overseeing lectures immersed her in the world of art once more. Walking those halls reignited a calling she could no longer ignore.
Since 2020 she has devoted herself to painting the natural world in oil. Working with a palette knife and bold colour, she brings landscapes to life through a language of abstract realism and contemporary impressionism. Her practice is grounded in travel and time outdoors, bushwalking, snow camping, and observing the rhythms of light and land.
Her work has been recognised as a finalist in major national prizes including the Paddington Art Prize, the Lethbridge Landscape Prize, and the National Capital Art Prize. She has exhibited nationally and internationally with shows in Madrid, Austria, and Milan, and her paintings have appeared in magazines and on album covers.
Her creative development has been enriched by self-directed study at some of the world’s great institutions and cultural centres, including the Louvre in France (2019), New York’s gallery circuit (2022), Renaissance collections in Italy (2023), Portugal’s museums (2025), and extensive research travel across continental China and parts of Tibet (2025). Each experience has deepened her commitment to painting as a transformative force.
Every painting she creates is a kind of poem, a dialogue with place, memory, and light. Her aim is to reveal the deep kinship between art and the natural world and the way both invite connection, empathy, and reflection.
After twenty-seven years in Sydney, she has recently settled in Canberra where, surrounded by mountains and bushland, she feels at home and at peace.
Finalist
2021 National Capital Art Prize
2022 Lethbridge Small-Scale Prize
2022 Paddington Art Prize
2023 Lethbridge Landscape Prize Salon des Refusés
2024 Lethbridge Landscape Prize Salon des Refusés
Exhibitions
2021 Innsbruck Art Fair, Austria
2021 The Other Art Fair, Sydney (Dec)
2022 Milano Art Fair, Italy
2022 Van Gogh Art Gallery, Madrid
2022 The Other Art Fair, Sydney (July and Dec)
2022 Solo Exhibition Energy of Risk, Corner Gallery Stanmore
2022 Group Exhibition Interlude, Sheer Gallery
2022 Group Exhibition, Art Goupie, Darlinghurst Road Gallery
2023 The Other Art Fair, Sydney
2024 The Other Art Fair, Sydney and Melbourne
2024 The Affordable Art Fair, Sydney and Melbourne
2024 Solo Exhibition Miles To Go Before I Sleep, Aarwun Gallery Canberra
2025 Solo Exhibition Full Moon Sway, Gallery Alchemy Milton
2025 Affordable Art Fair, Melbourne and Sydney
2026 First Sentier, Tower 3, Barangaroo - solo exhibition