Artist

Renowned for her unique and dynamic contemporary oil paintings, Australian artist Tory Burke is the creative behind Studio Elwood, an art brand creating accessible, original artworks and limited-edition art prints. Born into a family of creatives, Tory sought an outlet for her own expression. As a student of Art and Design at Melbourne School of Art in the early 1990’s, she began exploring a contemporary aesthetic which led to her signature abstract style.

An encounter with the abstract artwork of Tory Burke is an immediate and compelling visual experience. Adopting a sense of minimalism, all works are striking and remarkable graphic images. Large canvases with strong line work, balanced geometric composition and considered colours, culminating in a striking and bold artwork.

Tory chooses to paint on a lux Italian linen, which provides the ideal neutral base with which she can utilise a large colour palette, working from a middle value towards light to dark while concentrating on a consciously placed colour scheme. Raw arcing shapes are drawn on the picture plane in charcoal using a divine subdivision, to create a fine balance.

Experimenting with texture, Tory works with refined thin layers of lux oil paint rubbed into linen, a tactile stucco effect as well as an extreme thick impasto style.

Several well renowned Australian artists continue to inspire and influence Tory’s practice. The abstract style and minimalism of Robert Jacks; Margaret Preston’s graphic still life pieces; Brett Whiteley’s unusual use of space and perspective; the freedom in John Olsen’s fluid and simple line work. But it is Albert Namatjira’s strong colour contrasts, particularly his beautiful white ghost gums, that appeal greatly to Tory.

Studio Elwood’s pieces have featured in Australian Home Beautiful, Inside Out and The Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend. Her commissions are enjoyed in private homes and corporate offices across the country.