Sally Stokes

The energy of landscape is at the heart of the painting of Sally Stokes. That hint of mystery, the strange ecological relationships that nurture our sense of being human and our sense of transformation. This energy particularly comes from the Australian landscapes — the annual trips to the desert — drawing and absorbing this world — removed even from the internet — days on the river around the Hawkesbury and the incredibly diverse interrelationships of the Hawkesbury sandstone country’s complexity — more diverse than the Amazon acre to acre. Then there are the Mountains and the Coast. Always an exploration, always pushing colour — the push and pull of composition and line that, when absorbed, takes you to a different place — that strange space between the viewer and the painting that excites our emotions and stirs the heart!

Sally Stokes has completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with further studies at Meadowbank, Hornsby and East Sydney (now the National Art School). She also has a Masters in Analytical Psychology. She has completed residencies at Ginestrelle in Assisi in Italy (2011); Nancy Fairfax artist-in-residence at Tweed Regional Gallery (2020) and Kelton Plain Artist Residency (2021).

Stokes won the Muswellbrook Art Prize in 2021; Hills Grammar Art Prize (1992 and 1994) and was acquired in the Hawkesbury Art Prize. She has been a Finalist in many art exhibitions, including Fisher’s Ghost (2022), Waverley Art Prize (2022), Paddington Art Prize (2018, 2019, 2020), Gosford Art Prize, Hornsby Art Prize, Blacktown City Art Prize, KAAF Art Prize, Calleen Art Prize, Grace Cossington Smith Art Prize and The Sulman Art Prize. Her paintings are held in the public collections of Newcastle Art Gallery, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Artbank and Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.