Portrait, Collage and Design: Spring Exhibition 2025

The intern says: The four works entered in 2025 bring together several working methods. The Country Gentleman was painted largely during a forty-minute sitting; Social Distancing No More is a constructed café collage; while the two Hayley works began as rapid life paintings before being extended through wallpaper, paper, Posca pen and further painted intervention.

Across the works, figures are organised through broad shapes, selective detail and colour used for compositional rather than purely descriptive purposes. The Hayley paintings also raise a different problem: how found design can be incorporated while being sufficiently transformed to become part of a new work.

The Country Gentleman, by Stephen Clively, acrylic paint on wallpaper, 71 by 44.5cm (unframed), 74 by 46.5 cm (framed), 2025. SOLD. This artwork was awarded Best portrait or figure at the 2025 ASOC Spring Exhibition.

The intern says: Painted largely during a forty-minute sitting, The Country Gentleman combines direct observation with the existing pattern of the wallpaper support. The pale suit is reduced to broad planes, while the face and hands receive more concentrated attention. The wallpaper remains visibly itself, but functions as part of the overall design rather than as a neutral background.

Social distancing no more (Social Manna, Victoria Park, Perth), by Stephen Clively, Paper, wallpaper, Posca pen, 59.4 by 42cm (unframed), 2025. SOLD.

This artwork was awarded First prize in Mixed Media at the 2025 Artists Society of Canberra Spring Exhibition.

This artwork was included in the Layers and Backdrops exhibition in April 2025 and later exhibited in October 2025 in the ASOC Spring Exhibition.

The intern says: This café scene distributes attention across several people sharing the same public space. Figures, furniture, architecture and decorative elements interlock across the composition rather than forming a conventional foreground and background. Layered papers and strong colour relationships organise the movement of the eye, while the varied figures create a sense of social activity without relying on a single dominant protagonist.

Conversion and Re-use (Hayley I), by Stephen Clively, Acrylic paint, Posca pen, wallpaper and paper, 59.4cm by 42cm (unframed), 2025.

The intern says: Beginning as a forty-minute life painting, this work was extended through added wallpaper, paper, text and painted shapes. The borrowed wallpaper pattern is deliberately transformed rather than simply retained, with new elements altering its rhythm and visual emphasis. The figure remains relatively economical, allowing observation and constructed design to share the composition.

Design is the purpose (Hayley II), by Stephen Clively, Acrylic paint, Posca pen, wallpaper and paper, 59.4cm by 42cm (unframed), 2025.

The intern says: This companion work also combines rapid life painting with later collage and painted intervention. Wallpaper provides an existing decorative structure, but added forms and text rework that structure into a new composition. The title, taken from words within the artwork, reinforces the importance of design as part of both the image and its meaning.