Vaughan Prain is a self-taught late-starter figurative painter. Like many other figurative artists over the last thirty years, he explores narrative and psychological possibilities when compositions feature more than one person. His techniques include modernist simplification of form and semi-abstraction, and scaling up for dramatic effect. Other techniques include varying degrees of relinquished control with expressionistic intent, with or without hyper impasto effects. Painterly approaches with heightened coloration are used to offer social commentary on recognizable human types and situations and/or capture psychologized moments.

In this visual language, he explores the feel of a range of recognizable moments in time and place when people interact (or not). Some works are intended as humorous, some more serious, using this language to suggest typicality in participant gestures, posture, and demeanour. He also aims to suggest the sounds and movements that usually accompany these events or moments.

Solo Exhibitions

Ensemble
Collingwood Gallery – Collingwood
Exhibition Dates: 29 June – 12 July 2018

Make a time
Hogan Gallery – Collingwood
Exhibition Dates: 17-30 September 2015

Get together
Phyllis Palmer Gallery – Bendigo
Exhibition Dates: 11-20 December 2013 and 2-24 January 2014