Callum Francis

Callum Francis is a gifted emerging painter who lives and works in Brisbane, Australia Despite his early love of drawing and painting, Callum only discovered abstraction while attending university in Brisbane. Its effect on him was immediate. He recalls, “I remember sitting in the first lecture on abstract expressionism and just being overwhelmed. The scale, the intensity, and the color resonated with me.”

For Callum, color is a personal experience, and his choice of color reflects his response to his environment or feelings evoked from his experience. Texture, layering, and the act of painting, itself, also play an important role.”I am a direct painter. Once I place a color, that’s where it belongs and is meant to be. I love the immediacy of oils. I thin the oil paint with medium so it’s flowing and smooth. When the oil is thinned it has such a delicate strength in its fluidity,…I spend plenty of time by the beach and rivers fishing, walking, and photographing the sunsets and colors of the water. I find being near water incredibly relaxing and healing….The Australian light is beyond luminescent and it’s at its dearest at sunset. The brilliant pinks, mauves, lavenders, blues, oranges, and magentas make their way into my paintings. The splash of color that is there for us every day is a gift for all of us. A celebration of life at the end of each day,…Water, light, and the sunrise/sunsets of Brisbane, Maroochydoore, and Burrum Heads are the muses for all of my work currently. The paintings are a response to my relationship with each place and the significance each has on my life.”