Inspiration

Prudence, an Australian contemporary artist, draws inspiration from the landscape and environment around her. Living on the Australian coastline, she finds creativity from our remarkable wildlife. She is a passionate longboard surfer, beginner free diver and finds her close connection with the ocean is what drives her to create and share.

Growing up in rural Victoria, her most valued memories were at the family beach house where she fell in love with the coast.

“The ocean is complex, essential and for everyone

Her art practice explores themes of calm, solitude, depth, collaboration, vastness, warmth, beauty, strength and vulnerability.

“For me it’s not so much to do with having a Whale or a Great White in my living room, although I still think thats pretty epic, but more about the power and strength that these creatures emanate effortlessly.”

“A painting is much easier to approach than living creature, so I create layers of details to replicate the complexity of these animals.”

Career

Prudence Coburn is an Australian Artist born in Ballarat, Victoria. She finds her inspiration in her surrounding landscape and environment. Behind each of her artworks lies the intention to expose the complexity and the beauty within nature in a simple way, encouraging more people to view natural elements this way in the future.

Prudence has always been a creative however it was during her study of Studio Art in High School that she discovered her love for sculpture. Though she had practiced drawing and painting prior to her final year of school, she was encouraged to move between different mediums and utilized her skill in drawing to generate ideas for her sculptural pieces.

Throughout her high school education Prudence was awarded the Geoffrey P. Fink Scholarship and the Phillip Russel Prize for Fine arts. After graduating she was accepted for Top Arts 2016 where she had her sculpture, “Simply sticks ‘n’ Stability”, hung at the Ian Potter center in the National Gallery of Victoria. With this sculpture she won the Macquarie Group Selection Prize and was interviewed on both Joy 94.9 and ABC radio stations.

In 2016 Prudence went to Art school at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University where she studied Sculpture and Spatial Practice and was also able to learn from other young artists. It is here that she learnt other skills such as welding, casting, how to curate group exhibitions and was shortlisted for the 2017 Mary & Lou Senini Award at the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park.

Prudence Graduated with a Bachelor of Fine arts (Visual Art) from Melbourne University in 2018 and with her degree moved herself out of the city and to the Surf Coast where she found she sourced most of her inspiration. During COVID lockdowns, Prudence was able to continue creating and begun prioritizing artwork sales and marketing online.

In 2020 she made the move up to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland where she has taken to new inspirations from the different flora, fauna and lifestyle. The environment change has had a big impact on her style as she has shifted from landscape/flora paintings and has begun exploring deeper in to her interest of marine life.

Prudence graduated with a Certificate in Small Business at University of the Sunshine Coast while working as a Lead Artist at a Paint & Sip company in 2023. She exhibited for a month at The Butter Factory & Art Centre for her second ever solo exhibition, titled “In-Depth”. The success of this exhibition lead her to exhibit in Sculpture on the Edge Sunshine Coast in the Flaxton gardens.

2024 commenced with Prudences involvement in the ‘Summertime’ exhibition hosted by Stevens Street Gallery. Shortly after, she began work there as a Gallery Assistant. In May, she took her art to Sydney for the Other Art Fair, hosted by Saatchi Art, where she had the opportunity to represent herself and showcase her practice to a new audience. She returned to Sydney in July to exhibit at the Affordable Art Fair with Stevens Street Gallery, who will also be representing her for the Melbourne Affordable Art Fair at the end of August.

Prudence continues to draw inspiration back to her study of sculpture, where she explored how various materials work in harmony or how they create conflict. She currently has artwork displayed in multiple locations (See where she is currently exhibited HERE).

If you’d like to know even more info about Prudences achievements as an artist, please take a look at her Artist CV by clicking here or feel free to get in touch via the contact me form.

In The Studio