FREDA SURGENOR

Romantic Realist Painter in Watercolour and Acrylic

 

Freda was born in Harrow England and studied art and later graphic design and illustration at Bourneville School of Art, Birmingham, United Kingdom.

She worked in London as a graphic designer in publishing as well as illustrating two children’s books and teaching art for several years.

    Since coming to Australia in 1982 Freda has established herself through solo exhibitions and group shows as a highly respected watercolour and acrylic painter. In 1990 her painting “Backyard” was selected for exhibition in the Herald Heritage Award and in 1991 two paintings “Backyard” and “Backyard Pool” toured Australia in the prestigious National Exhibition - Portrait of Australia. In 1994 “Dockscape” was selected and hung in the Salon de Refuses at the S H Ervin Gallery.

     Freda's painting "Sweet Indulgence" was included as a finalist in Australian Artist's new magazine Water Colour Annual '97.
Subsequently, Freda was featured as a master painter in both the Water Colour Annual ’98 and the January and October 1999 issues of the International Artist Magazine, and in March 2000, and January and February 2003, further articles on her work appeared in Australian Artist magazine


In October 2003, Freda was accepted as an exhibiting member of the Royal Art Society of NSW and has showed her work in all their exhibitions since then.

     A multi award winning artist, including the Mosman Art Prize and awards at the Royal Easter Show, including a first prize in the Marine Section in 2000, she was approached by the print distributors Art Throughout Australia with a view to reproducing her work. There are now three of her reproductions in circulation.

     Freda has been doing Life Drawing for many years and is now convenor of the West Oatley life drawing sketch group, for The Oatley 101 Society of Artists, Sydney. She has taught life drawing workshops for both the St George Art Society and for Art in Action - an art learning experience run by the Combined Art Societies of Sydney at the Meroo Conference Centre, Kurrajong in May every year.

     Freda, who has always been interested in people, both at work and play, demonstrates a high level of excellence using vibrant colours to depict a great variety of subjects from landscapes through waterscapes, cityscapes, still-life, floral, portraiture, life painting and miniatures.

     Freda is totally dedicated to her work - when she’s not painting she is thinking about it. She feels that good draughtsmanship is a basis for successful painting and never stops drawing. She works in fine detail using strong colour to create pieces, which glow with life and light. This results in highly successful warm paintings, which demonstrate her ability to capture and recreate the images realistically. This is reflected by the number of her works, which are highly sought after by collectors both in Australia and overseas

       In 2004, she was accepted as an exhibiting member of the Australian Society of Miniature Art

 In 2005, Freda was elevated to “Associate” at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales and became a finalist at the Jaques Cadry Exhibition "For the Children"

 

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