Allan Baptist OAM

About the Artist

Born in 1950 Sydney Australia, Allan Baptist has been painting and drawing for over 6 decades throughout Australia, France and Indonesia.

He is represented in private and public collections including the NSW Riverina Regional Gallery and the NSW State Government Collection.

In 1994 he took his first foray into the life of a full time artist with a three month painting excursion to a tiny village Le Verdier, in the South of France north of Toulouse, after which he moved to the South Coast of NSW Australia to paint, write and devote his life fully to the arts.

He first began exhibiting solo in 1977 in Mildura, Victoria and boasts a long list of individual and group exhibitions across the eastern states and in the Qantas lounges of Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
In 1982 he was part of the ‘Eight Australian Artists’ exhibition at the Bolitho Gallery in Canberra and later ‘Contemporary Riverina Artists’ in the Wagga Regional Gallery. In 1995 he was commissioned by the Holy Spirit Hospital Brisbane to produce a series of 40 contemporary seascapes featuring yachts, luminous skies and colourful water surface reflections.

In 2007 he was invited to present a solo exhibition at the Regional Gallery in Nowra NSW.
His imagery has several sources of inspiration; the translucent light and moods of the NSW South coast; the landscape and historic, gracious towns of France and Italy; the vast openness and visual energy of the Australian bush and the amazing diversity of the human face and the profound dignity of the peoples of Bali, Samoa and Africa.

His ripped figure series unveiled the human figure within the landscape and introduced dark and evocative imagery. Demanding deeper contemplation, the viewer is lead to a gentle beauty within.
Themes of Venice continue to surface. Initiating in 1990 with large and colourful city scapes they again appeared in 2019 after a drawing trip to Venice. Those recent works search deeper than the rippling waters into the soul of Venice. Forever seen as the jewel of the Adriatic, her magnificent facade attracts millions of visitors, seduced by her reflective beauty… but there is something complex and contradictory in the facets of her historical character: Creativity, science, mercantile genius, profound beauty, power and faith…all entwined and corroding under that alluring mask.

Allan Baptist OAM
2023

Work

Recent Work

White barked Forest

Charcoal on paper
2023

Diptych Cave, Waterfall and Golden Bird

Carbon Pencil an gold leaf on Paper
2023

Golden Hour

Acrylic on Canvas
2023

Golden Hush of Sunrise

Oil on Canvas
2023

Sunlight over the Lake

Acrylic on Canvas
2023

The Calm Hush of Summer

Oil on Canvas
2023

Recent exhibitions

Journey Retrospective and Current works

Crookwell Art Gallery | 2022

Quiet Nature

Bungendore Woodworks Gallery | 2021

Exhibition

Shoalhaven Fine Art Gallery Huskisson | 2012 – 2021

Exhibition

Bungendore Gallery | 2011 – 2023

Exhibition

Sydney Art Expo | 2010

Coastlines

Bungendore Woodworks Gallery| 2009

Naked Flame

Hibiscus Gallery Lake Burrill | 2009

Now and Then

Crookwell and District Art Gallery | 2009

Awards

South Coast Tourism Awards – Cultural Tourism

Shoalhaven City Arts Centre| 2006

Business Excellence Award

Nowra TAF – Shoalhaven City Arts Centre | 2005

OAM Order of Australia Medal

2011

IMAGinE Awards- for Individual Award for Excellence

Museums & Galleries NSW, Museums Australia (NSW & ACT) and Regional & Public Galleries of NSW | 2008

The Brendan Hartnett Award

NSW State Local Government Cultural Awards | 2008

Award for services to the cultural life of the Shoalhaven

Healthy Cities Illawarra | 1996

Award for ‘Excellence in Teaching’

NSW State Education Minister | 1994

Rotary Vocational Service Excellence Award

Crookwell | 1993

Holbrook Shire Art Award

Holbrook Shire | 1980

Inaugural Leadership Award

Wagga Teachers College | 1971

Chatswood Municipality Art Awards

Chatswood | 1967

Permanent Building Society

Mildura Art Society | 1974

Currently

Currently  Allan Baptist OAM is a professional artist working from his studio in Bawley Point.

He worked as Program manager for Essential Films with WINTV to create a 7 part  film series about the Shoalhaven, titled ‘Living on the Coast-Shoalhaven’ which showcased the region, its resilience, its creativity and its positive community and its  recovery post bushfire devastation 2019 & 2020.

It was screened on the WIN network and encored across Australia on WIN TV and Channel 9 in 2022 with over 500,000 viewers and 400,000 social media responses.