Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep 87 Sally Ross

Sally Ross is an intellectually captivating painter who works between hypnotic landscapes and psychological portraiture.

Sally has spent over three decades developing a distinctive visual language defined by flattened, patterned surfaces, cool palettes, and a deep dialogue with art history.

After eight formative years living in France, (amongst other things, running an artists’ squat in an abandoned seventeenth-century hospice) and exhibiting across Europe and America, she returned to Melbourne to establish a studio practice.

A six-time Archibald Prize finalist whose portrait The Huxleys was selected for the historic Archie 100 tour.

Sally has work held in major public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Portrait Gallery.

But it’s the experiences and lessons she’s learnt along the way that were absorbing to me...and no doubt would be valuable to those artists starting their journey. An enjoyable conversation. She’s fabulous.

Head to wherever you get your podcasts and search Australian Women Artists.

Sally is represented by Smith & Singer, Melbourne

& Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney

Images

1. SR by Mel Savage

2. Autoportrait, 2021 (Archibald finalist) oil on board 130 x 110

3&4 The Huxleys, 2018 (Archibald finalist) oil on wood panel 130x110

5. SR with the Huxleys

6. Riverbed grevillea, 2025, oil on board, 130 x 110

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep 86 Elizabeth Barnett

Elizabeth Barnett is a painter and printmaker who also utilises textiles and pottery. Her still life and interior paintings have become instantly recognisable — plant-filled nooks, stacked books, jugs and vases, all rendered in a distinct palette that reflects the season.

She has a deep reverence for the everyday. From her early training in the rigorous world of printmaking to lush, translucent paintings on stretched linen, and eventually to thickly layered oil works in her bushland studio.

She is also an incredible community builder, having co-founded Melbourne's iconic Schoolhouse Studios, a massive, not-for-profit creative hub.

Today, working from her home studio in the Macedon Ranges, Elizabeth continues to celebrate the gentle, wondrous beauty of daily life while acting as a passionate advocate for female representation in the arts.

“Her subjects do not sit flat upon the canvas, but instead reach up from it, enlivened by the wild and natural world. This liveliness belies the ‘stillness’ of still life painting and along with Barnett’s painterly gestures of shadow, line and colour creates a visual dynamism reaches beyond tradition.”

To have a listen to our conversation, head to the link in my bio or search Australian Women Artists wherever you find your podcasts.

Elizabeth is represented by Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne.

Images supplied by artists

1. EB

2. Nocturne Arrangement 2026 oil on linen 215 x 153

3. Floribunda and Gwen 2026 oil on linen 81 x 91

4. Nocturne 2024 oil on linen 153 x 122

5 & 6 installation shots

Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep 85 Nell

Nell is one of Australia's most distinctive contemporary artists, working across painting, sculpture, performance, video and installation.

She has spent three decades building a visual language shaped by rock 'n' roll, Buddhist philosophy and religious iconography. Smiley faces, lightning bolts, ghosts, tears and eggs recur throughout her art and help create works that have been described as playful, insightful and poetic.

Her work explores the binaries of human existence – birth and death, sorrow and happiness, light and dark.

It’s a fascinating story and, with 300+ exhibitions to consider, I’ve had the unenviable task of choosing just a few to discuss without minimising the others otherwise we’d be still chatting well into 2027!

‘Nell has developed a unique visual language that traverses scale, medium and materiality. Regardless of the outcome, her work explores oppositional thresholds and the fertile space that exist beyond the binary: from intimate to immersive, found to fabricated, high to low culture, two-dimensions to three-dimensions, individual to collaborative, ancient to contemporary, sacred to profane.... At the heart of Nell’s practice is an offering of connection and companionship; a reminder that we are not alone.’ Station Gallery (representing Nell).

To have a listen to our conversation, head to my bio or search ‘Australian Women Artists’ wherever you normally find your podcasts.

Images

1. Holding Both, 2026, Museum of Contemporary Art, Photo Anna Kucera

2. Let There Be Robe, 2011, Museum of Old and New Art, Photo Rémi Chauvin

3. ROCK GATE, 2019, Carriageworks, Photo Zan Wimberley

4. Nell x Colin McCahon: Through the Wall of Birth and Death, 2024, Dowse Art Museum, Photo Sam Hartnett

5. Face Everything, 2025-26, Heide Modern, Photo Christo Crocker

6+7. NELL ANNE QUILT, 2020-24, Photo Jenni Carter