Biog_Hennessy

Lucy is an Australian artist who was born in Sydney in 1973. She graduated from the Institute of Art and Restoration in Florence, Italy in 1995, the University of Sydney (Bachelor of Arts) in 1999 and the National Art School (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in 2003 and completed two years at the Charlie Sheard studio school in Sydney in 2004 and 2005.

Lucy has exhibited her work in many shows since graduating from the National Art School and her work has been selected for some notable prize exhibitions including: the Sulman Art Prize, AGNSW, Mosman Art Prize and the Mary Place Gallery Emerging Artists Prize.

1992 - 1994 Diploma of Graphic Art, Institute of Art and Restoration, Florence, Italy

Finalist Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Solo Show, Destiny, Frances Keevil Gallery, Sydney

ASX Reuters Exhibition, Cellblock, National Art School, Darlinghurst, Sydney

Lucy is represented in private collections in Australia, England, Italy, Hong Kong and The United States of America.

Exhibition - Season by Season - August 5 to August 24, 2010
This exhibition represents a poetic stroll through the seasons; it is an invitation to roam and crisscross the seasons as one might in a dream.
Lucy provides the viewer with a chance to enjoy and celebrate the beauty of the ephemeral and transitory, and to savour the moment and recognise the passing of time. Her landscapes are deeply felt and interspersed with nuances of light and dark...vast fields; bright colourful spring gardens; the shifting patterns of the skies; the leaves of autumn; and the never-ending blue of the ocean. These works celebrate moments which are certain to fade and cherish that which is fragile and impermanent.
Lucy is a narrative painter. Her figures tell a story but melt into the elements surrounding them. In this group of paintings Lucy has explored the subtle journey of human feeling connected to each season. The colours and seasons are bought together with simple connections to figures in a tribute to the beauty of that which is destined to disappear but return again.

‘mono no aware’ – the poignant loveliness of fragile things.

Exhibition - Lost and Found - September 17 to October 1, 2009
The inspiration for the title of this series of paintings came whilst reading a story to her son called Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. The simplicity of the title, with its ability to say so much more, struck a chord with the artist and she decided it would be a good launch pad for her next series of paintings.

The title of this exhibition provides vague parameters within which Lucy’s paintings fit. As with her previous work, it is the mystery and endless fascination with the art of painting that continues to inspire. In particular, this collection is both interesting and meaningful with the foremost reference being to nature. In many of the paintings she tries to paint the relationship between the landscape and the person and the energy that this brings when the two collide. Mostly they are powerful and deeply personal responses to her immediate and past experiences and are often expressions of her daydreams. These works evoke the words of the 15^th century artist Cennino Cennini as “representing something that is not visible through something that is.”

Lucy’s works attempt to express human existence in moments of joy, tenderness, hopelessness and adventure. They are fragments of her experiences or moments shared or observed that have captured her attention in an emotional way.

Lucy’s painting methods employ old masters techniques of layering with opaque and transparent colours, building up the image with glazing. Beside the important visual appeal, she does this to ensure that the paintings will last beyond her lifetime and be of lasting value to those who buy them.