Lyndon Keene

Lyndon Keene studied at Southampton College of Art in England in the 1970s but didn’t take up art as a career until about 25 years ago while living in Aotearoa New Zealand, stating with representational landscapes but gradually evolving into abstract painting. Much of Keene’s abstract work still emerges from landscape, however – not as something simply observed but as something felt.

Working intuitively, he seeks to evoke sensation rather than fixed interpretation or tangible realities, creating space for reflection and emotional connection, allowing room for the unknown and the inexplicable.

“For me, painting is a direct response to a lived experience,” he says.  “I translate things I have felt and remembered into a visual language. I usually don’t have a preconceived idea about where a painting might take me. I’m more interested in the process of painting – the journey – than the destination. I like to let the painting itself lead the way, building the imagery through layers of paint and ink, letting the past live beneath the surface, exploring instinctually until I find an imagery that feels right, that resonates.”

Lyndon has exhibited widely in New Zealand and was a member of the NZ Academy of Fine Arts. Since moving here in 2015, he has been exhibiting regularly in Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and has been a finalist in national art prizes in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.