Courtney McClelland
Artists
Courtney McClelland is a painter based on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia. Her paintings are grounded in representations of the body, often in ethereal, distorted scenes.
A significant part of her practice is grounded in the materiality of the paint. Her paintings begin intuitively, using stains as the first layers. She finds impressions of bodies in the marks they leave. She builds the surface using a combination of thick textural marks and soft glazes, positioning the bodies in undefined, crumbling landscapes.
As she develops her works she seeks out stories in the bodies and how they hold on to each other. Courtney is drawn to imagery that looks like bodies in brawls, conversations, moments of intimacy and celebration. The scenes in these works sit on the cusp of recognisability, with the figures breathing in and out of focus. She is interested in communicating the sensations of living in bodies. Translating how we relate to each other, in ways that are intimate, psychological, spiritual or chaotic.
Courtney was born in 1999 in Central Queensland and grew up in several mining towns before moving to the Northern Rivers as a teenager. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School in 2022, majoring in painting. Her work has been exhibited in Sydney, Australia, and is held in private collections across the country. She is currently working out of a studio in Rozelle, Sydney.
