Olivia Shimeld | Kanimbla Black Cockatoos 3
Kanimbla Black Cockatoos 3 | 2025
Acrylic and oil on linen
30 x 30 cm
Timber shadow box frame. Signed verso
$750
My Cloud Sky With Black Cockatoo series grew from earlier Cloud Sky With Birds paintings - In this series of works I focus closely on the majestic yellow-tailed black cockatoo. Against softly blurred, cloud-filled skies—hand-painted in acrylic gesso, then glazed in oil paint—the birds emerge in sharp detail. This contrast draws the eye to their form and presence.
I paint the cockatoos in monochrome violet and white rather than their natural black and yellow, allowing the play of light and the intricacy of their feathers to take precedence. These birds regularly fly over my studio, and their calls and silhouettes always make me pause; they carry a timeless, almost ceremonial energy.
The luminous sunrises and sunsets of Katoomba and Blackheath similarly stop me in my tracks, inviting quiet attention. This series is my response to those moments of stillness and connection - on Dharug and Gundangurra land on which I live and work.
Olivia Shimeld
Bio
With a background in electronic and temporal art (BVA, Sydney College Of The Arts 1997 - 1999), Katoomba based artist Olivia Shimeld has found a way to give her paintings a uniquely digital aesthetic. Her ethereal abstract landscapes, vast sunsets with birds, night skies and floral assemblages flash with vibrant neon colours layered atop one another, creating a depth of space reminiscent of a digital screen. Olivia uses high quality acrylic, oil and aerosol paints which she intuitively allows to drip and splatter onto her canvas. At once meditative and energetic, Olivia’s work asks for contemplation as it blurs material boundaries.
Olivia studied oil painting with Celia Gullett for six years (2011, 2013 – 2017). At the same time she also studied yoga, meditation and energetic healing. Her studies, living in the Blue Mountains, as well as being a mother to four school aged children inform and inspire her painting practise.
“I observe the colours in the sky and the way the light interacts with the clouds, and store those images in my memory bank,” she says. “I work from imagination, intuition and interaction.”
The results are high intensity, uplifting works, bustling with colour and texture. Layering acrylics and aerosol paint alongside oil sticks and oil paint, Olivia’s art is saturated with movement and life.
Each of Olivia’s works are simultaneously considered and spontaneous, producing bold and bright windows into her mind. Her practice of layering colour and texture creates wonderfully rich works, reflecting the great joy the act of painting brings to the artist.
Her exhibitions include:
From The Ground Up, with Morgan Shimeld, Day Gallery, Blackheath, April 2023
Mountains Group 7, group exhibition, Day Gallery, Blackheath, June 2022
Cloud Sky and Landscape, solo show, 107, Redfern, March 2022
The Other Art Fair, Sydney, December 2021
Abstract Landscape, solo show, 107, Redfern, May 2021
The Other Art Fair, Sydney, March 2021
Falling Leaves and Torn Signs (with printmaker Tim Kelly), The Shop Gallery, Glebe, February 2021
Falling Leaves (alongside Passage sculptures by Morgan Shimeld, Day Gallery, Blackheath October 2020
The Affordable Art Fair, Melbourne, September 2019
Olivia has also shown at First Draft Gallery in 2005, Degree Show, SCA in 1999 and Art Express at AGNSW in 1996.
