Bridie Gillman
On the bend, while I waited | 2026 | oil on linen | 137 x 107cm
Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2026 - Finalist
Image courtesy of artist.
Bridie Gillman
QLD
On the bend, while I waited
2026
Oil on linen
137 x 107cm
My painting practice has become a meditative act of recalling my experiences of a place through abstraction of colour, shape and form. Each piece is made in response to everyday observations – from a fleeting moment to a slower, studied observation. Translated through colour, these seen things become landmarks through which I navigate a place.
On the bend, while I waited. is part of my ‘Land marks’ body of work developed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia last year. It was made in response to a small building I came across while I walked and waited for my stepfather Sugih while he had a foot massage. An unassuming, shuttered building on the bend of busy road I was drawn to its sweetly coloured fading paint and the strong verticality of the aluminium accordion door. I returned many times over the following months studying the colours, the wear, and the imagined histories. Each time, I wondered why I had preferred to wander the streets under a hot sun than have a pijat (massage) too.
This looking and thinking was subsequently channeled into the painting – it contains all of it. I am endlessly intrigued that an object, a building, a colour can hold different histories and stories for each of us. The pink in the painting is reminiscent of the pink linen shirt Sugih wore on our first day exploring Yogyakarta together. Maybe the pink is Sugih.