Elwood
Moore

Painter

Elwood Moore is a painter based in Melbourne, Australia. Moore works across a spectrum of traditional painting genres, including; still life, landscape, and portraiture. The work is characterised by a diversity of stylistic approaches spanning figurative to abstract. While a bulk of the work produced thus far has been executed in
oil paint on canvas other mediums and types
of support are at times also incorporated
into the pieces.

If you would like to learn more about Elwood or enquire about purchasing any of the artworks on this website please contact us by email.

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Intro

Artist's Statement

Background

My work draws on more than 30 years
experience living, working within and closely
observing Australian culture.
Having worked as a commercial designer
in graphic design and architecure, I have
an ongoing fascination with Australia’s
complex culture. In the past my role has
been primarily as a ‘intermediary’ between
‘high art’ and popular culture curating
and negotiating the fuzzy zone in between
contrasting and sometimes overlapping
worlds.

Australia is an especially unique place in
that being a young culture [at least in a
non-indigenous sense] we are still maturing,
finding our way and place in the world.
Our youthful mindset has it’s advantages
and disadvantages. There is a vitality,
inventiveness and freedom of spirit in
our culture that is contagious but also an
impetuousness and self consciousness [the
well known cringe effect] that we are still
grappling with.

During my time as a designer I have always
found painting to be an effective way to
explore ideas and although the paintings
were not intended to be finished pieces
in themselves, I quite often inadvertently
achieved a high level of resolution and the
paintings seemed to take on a life of their
own. So much so that I have felt compelled
to put all my energy into developing my
painting ideas further and practice painting
full-time.

Subject Matter?
I was born and raised in Australia and
I am interested in exploring the unique
multicultural conditions that exist here and
at the same time exploring my place within
that context as an Australian born,
white male.

Some of these themes include;
our relationship with the landscape, the
built environment and human-made objects
that surround us and how our inherited
european heritage influences have shaped
our experience of our physical environment.
The relationships and tensions between
‘high’ culture and popular culture are also
of interest to me, including; Australian
sports culture, male identity, larrikinism,
car culture, machoism and the tensions
these things create within our
broader society.

But Why Painting?

My attraction to the medium of painting
stems from it’s directness and immediacy,
but mostly it’s tactility. The act of applying
paint to a surface has always felt very
natural to me. And although I have explored
numerous other mediums, I can’t help but
return to this most plastic of mediums.
Through years of experimentation, trial and
error I have developed a process of building
up a surface with impasto layers that I
push and drag with brushes and palette
knives. This visual vocabulary of brushwork,
layering and editing allows me to express
myself effectively.

I prefer to address aspects of the painting
process in discrete stages. The work always
begins with texture. First I lay down a
thick impasto layer to sculpt the forms of a
composition. I then apply an imprimatura
before brushing on a loosely worked
chiaroscuro to model the light and shade. I
then build up layers of broken colour using
oil pigment until I achieve a rich patina.

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Artist's CV

Name > born Mathew Paul Windebank,
AKA Elwood Moore
Based > Melbourne, Victoria 3184
Email > info@elwoodmoore.com.au

Education + Qualifications

Bachelor Architecture [1st Class Honours ], RMIT University 2001
[including 2 semester elective in Fine Art Painting Dep. with artist,
Louise Weaver]

Bachelor Arts Graphic Design [Distinction], Swinburne University 1991

Diploma Arts Graphic Design, Swinburne University,1990

TOP, Art & Design, Box Hill Tafe 1986

Professional History

2015 – present > Full time Artist, Painting

2011 – 2015 > Design Director, MWD, residential building design

2001 – 2011 > Creative Director, Millimetre Design & Branding

1994 – 2001 > Senior Designer, MYD Graphic Design

1992 – 1993 > Graphic Designer, FHA Design

1991 – 1992 > Junior Graphic Designer, RBD Design

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Artist's Statement

Artist's CV