Tony Grainger was born in 1950. He began painting tentatively in 1996 with some tubs of matisse acrylic that an old school mate (now an art teacher) had given him. He had dabbled with oil paint as a kid and remembered the sensuous feel of the oils and gradually moved back to the oil medium.

He sold his first piece in 1999, and, with more sales gradually built his confidence in his ability. His initial works suggest an obsession with pears, bowls, sticks, naked women, and various oddments although some works extended to include waves and the occasional abstract.

Grainger is impressed by artists who express themselves freely and forcefully and whose work has an intensely spiritual quality. One trait shared by the artists he admires is the ability to wander the path between representation and total abstraction, and to sometimes explore the mysterious ground that hovers between the two. Another is the power to evoke the most intense response with seemingly minimal effort and without resorting to calculated devices. Ultimately the subject of the artwork is irrelevant to Grainger, it’s the emotion conveyed by the painting that counts.

He still experiments with various medium and techniques including print making but is most at home with media that enable him to catch the immediacy of the vision. Although he has become more comfortable with acrylics, often mixing acrylic and pastel in an artwork, he still prefers oils for the colour control they give and what he calls the “sexy” consistency of the paint.

He says his best work emerges spontaneously and surprisingly often from a final layer over a multitude of images that have failed to inspire and been painted over, suggesting that maybe the artworks have a life of their own that dictates the final result.

Grainger’s work is found in a number of private collections around Australia.

Sticks With Bowls (220 x 1320mm)
Mixed Media on Canvas

Still Life With Sticks (1340 x 1360mm)
Mixed Media on Canvas SOLD

Artwork On Door (2030 x 700mm)
Mixed Media on Door