Featured Artist Petra Pinn

Artist Petra Pinn’s delightful paintings are inspired by travel, vintage décor, and a love of pattern. Enjoy more of her work by visiting her website.

 

 

How did I get into painting?

 

 

As a kid I enjoyed drawing and creating little sculptures with salt dough. I loved going to flea markets with my mum where I learned to appreciate antique furniture, jewelry and intricate fabrics.

 

 

After studying textile design, I worked as a designer in Europe and New Zealand. In 1996, I moved to Australia where I immediately fell in love with the diverse and exotic nature. I particularly loved the colourful birdlife and tropical plants.

 

 

I began to feel the need to create work that reflected this amazing flora and fauna. No longer interested in creating designs for others, I wanted to paint without any limitations.

 

 

I began my life as a painter after attending a workshops and classes with a variety of teachers who focused on Australian nature and lifestyle. My work has also been influenced by a number of impressionists, such as Lautrec and Degas.

 

 

After the youngest of my three children started school, my dream of opening up an art space and school with my Canadian-born artist buddy Laurie McKern came true. Gallery Cats Studios was born. We were part of a beautiful artist community, teaching and learning from each other. After ten amazing years (which included an artist residency in Ireland and many travels) we closed our doors. Then I built my own little art shed in my backyard in November, 2019.

 

 

When Covid hit, I was safely set up in my home studio, which I refer to as my Happy Place. Due to the lockdown, I was forced to take a break from teaching art and found myself drawing or painting every day. I was eventually picked up by regional galleries who had seen my work on social media. I paint a lot from life—self portraits, my home, garden and pets, as well as vintage decorative lamp shades and knickknacks I collect.

 

 

In my more recent interior paintings, I’m able to explore my love for travel, vintage decor, pattern, animals, nature and figurative art. I like to create stories by making the pets in my paintings “speak” to the sculptures and paintings in the scene, and vice versa.

 

 

This way I get to combine still life, figurative art and landscape. I keep spinning new ideas around—cats traveling to different countries and copies of the great masters hanging in invented living rooms. After having been on a few road trips recently, I find myself alternating my interiors and still life with landscapes.

 

 

I feel blessed to be able to paint every day and hope my creations bring as much joy to people as I have creating them.

 

Artist Petra Pinn invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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