Olivia is a multidisciplinary artist based between Fremantle and Margaret River, Western Australia.
She holds a BA in Fine Art from Curtin University, a Graduate Diploma of Education from ECU, and is a Churchill Fellow.
Drawing upon her father’s Austrian heritage, Olivia's practice is subtly informed by the underlying aesthetic of the Baroque era—specifically, the fascination with nature as a dynamic, infinite, and shifting theatrical force. Her work brings the small, shifting worlds of the intertidal zone into dialogue with brushed aluminium, a cool, reflective surface into which her artworks are digitally embedded. The result is work that holds both the stillness of a pool at low tide and the changing light around it.
"These works offer tiny worlds between tides, full of colour, texture, and life that I find in a multitude of mesmerizing, perfect moments. My intention is for each artwork to evoke a feeling of freedom, awe, peace, and solace, charged with the dynamic energy of the coast. Rather than a literal pictorial response to the landscape, these paintings are built up to evoke pure emotion.
The choice of metal is highly deliberate. It’s fine grain catches light much as water does, so the surface shifts as you move and as the day changes. The work never looks quite the same twice, just as a rock pool doesn't. I like the tension between a modern, manufactured material and something as fragile, organic, and timeless as the tidal edge.
I hope viewers find something of the same quiet attention and energy I find at the water’s edge: where time stretches out, with the pull to lean in, look closer, and be lost in the moment."
Process
My southwest rock pool works begin with the act of stopping and looking closely. Sketches, watercolours, drawing, and photographing are all slow ways of looking intently. Swimming, snorkelling, and beachcombing are equally part of this immersive process, allowing me to internalize the wind, the glistening play of refracted light, and the rippling water.
Back in the studio, this translates into a physical process of accumulation. The paintings reflect a culmination of layers of experience, stacking memory, time, and feeling directly onto the surface. All of this is distilled and explored in large-scale mixed media works on canvas or board. Built up in physical layers usually consisting of inks, acrylic, and natural pigments, the works are finished with oil glazes.
This slow method of construction means the physical accumulation of paint directly mirrors the emotional accumulation of memory. The final paintings are then recorded through a high-resolution scan or photograph and put through an industrial heat process to digitally embed each artwork into brushed aluminium, letting the changing light interact with the depths of the paint.
O L I V I A S A M E C
ARTIST
Painting + sculpture, multimedia installation, murals + workshops
