HELLO,WELCOME TO
MY CURIOUS WYLIE WORLD
Hi, I’m Beau Wylie, Australian painter, illustrative storyteller and maker of wondrous worlds where daydreams meet everyday life.
Working in oils, acrylics, pencils and collage, my artwork is a home for eccentric, misfit characters, unexplained happenings and is an invitation down the rabbit hole of curiosity, wonder and a little bit of mischief.
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Mysterious feral bush cats
As a child I was a bit of a misfit, and I spent much of my time drawing and exploring the scraggly New South Wales bush which surrounded my home.
I visited the miniature universes of bugs, spiders and frogs, had tense meetings with mysterious feral bush cats and adventures with runaway dogs. The grandeur of towering Eucalypts, roar of cicadas in summer and raging bushfires which knocked at our backdoor put me in awe of this sublime world of ours and became a rich source of inspiration for my paintings and drawings for the rest of my life.
I took a few detours on the way to painting full-time, I studied architecture, made video art, worked on a family farm, fixed boats on Sydney Harbour, installed art in galleries, and worked as a bookseller, just to name a few things, and a keen eye will notice that all these experiences have found their way into my work since as themes.
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letting my pencil take my mind for a walk
I am often asked what my paintings are about and where I get my ideas, and the truth is I am no more enlightened than anyone. I try to draw like a child when I’m sketching, without plans or preconceptions, letting my pencil take my mind for a walk, hoping to find something in the mess that makes me think “well, that’s very curious, what’s happening there?”. I then do my best not to bungle that spark when I get to painting it, so its eventual audience are captured with the same curiosity and, I hope, finish the story in their own mind and make the artwork their own.
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a wild stretch for a scatterbrain
These days I live and create in Newcastle with my wife and two young kids. Life is full and chaotic and, honestly at times balancing creative work with fatherhood is a wild stretch for a scatterbrain creative like me — sometimes I’m on top of it, other times I'm totally lost at sea. It’s a bloody beautiful mess and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So at the moment my projects take longer to finish than I hope, but there’s always something in the works. You can find me exhibiting my work at big art and design events in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle.
If you'd like to follow along with my artistic journey you can join my mailing list, which will keep you up to date about new artwork releases, upcoming events and special announcements.