John Pastoriza Pinol, 2023
OSGF
Botanical Artist in Residence 2023
Based in Melbourne, Australia, John considers himself a contemporary visual artist whose practice sits within the genre of botanical art yet rebels against its continued traditional representations and tropes. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, in solo and group exhibitions for the last 22 years in private and public galleries exploring these tensions along with the complex and dynamic interrelationships of man and nature/science and art. This has evolved into a commitment to painting as both a method and as a form of deeper inspection which continues to draw upon the power of close observation. Using rich luminous hues in gorgeously exotic and rare botanical specimens epitomise his work, however these are more than representational flower paintings. Closer inspection unearths a certain ambiguity of form and intent towards a dark and complex narrative which is born of the association between eye and hand, and sense and thought.