Karyn Fendley

ARTIST BIO
Karyn Fendley (b. 1970, Brisbane) is a contemporary landscape artist working in acrylic painting and digital media. She is based in Mullumbimby, in northern New South Wales, Australia. Raised in Brisbane, she graduated from the Queensland College of Art in 1989 and worked as a graphic designer before relocating to the north coast of New South Wales in 1996, where the surrounding landscape continues to shape and inform her practice.

Fendley’s work is grounded in a deep and enduring respect for nature. Her practice over the past three decades reflects a sustained exploration of the natural world, with her most recent series of landscape paintings focusing on forest environments. These works draw on the lakes, estuaries, and forests of the coastal national parks of northern New South Wales.

Her paintings explore how places are remembered and how their essence can be conveyed through distilled imagery. Working from time spent in the field, Fendley returns to the studio to paint, blending memory and observation to evoke atmosphere rather than describe a specific view. Dramatic compositions, strong contrasts of light and dark, and flattened perspectives are characteristic of her practice.

Recent work is informed by the concept of “forest bathing” (Shinrin-yoku), a Japanese practice of immersive engagement with forest environments to support physical and mental well-being. These paintings offer a quiet, sensory space in which viewers are invited to pause and reconnect with the natural world.

Since relocating to the north coast of New South Wales in the mid-1990s, Fendley has contributed to the local arts community. She was a founding member of the Practising Artists Network (PAN) and has coordinated monthly exhibitions for a group of local artists for over a decade.

Fendley has exhibited extensively in solo exhibitions throughout regional New South Wales, including repeated presentations at Northern Rivers Community Gallery and Tweed Regional Gallery. She is a recipient of the Caldera Art Byron Shire Fellowship (2011) and has been a finalist in numerous major regional art prizes, including the Border Art Prize, Caldera Art Prize, and Flying Arts Awards. Public art commissions include installations for Tweed Valley Hospital (2022) and Lismore Base Hospital (2023).