Our Australian Art Series continues with Danielle Cross, a Sydney-based artist with a modern take on experiencing art.

Tell us a little about your background, and your path to becoming an artist.
I've painted since I was a child, I studied visual art and textiles at school and I've always had a creative side. That creative streak runs in the family – my brother is an artist, my Dad is a builder (but also a frustrated architect) and my sister is a hairdresser. I studied interior design at the Design Centre Enmore and worked in interior design before I moved to Perth with my family for my husband's work. I was at home with my first daughter and I kept painting, then I accidentally sold a few works and started taking it a bit more seriously!

Where did you first exhibit your work?
After we moved back to Sydney, I bumped into a friend who runs Mrs Sippy in Double Bay, who suggested I do a show there. The show sold out, and I loved the way it exposed my art to people. It was a completely different environment to a traditional gallery - there was music, drinks, a happy vibe, and my paintings were hung on exposed brick walls rather than the traditional white walls.

How do you think your interior design background informs your work?
I don't think of myself as a traditional artist, I just think I'm a 'realist' artist. Coming from a design background, I do take into account the colours and shapes that are on trend, and what people like to have in their homes. Creating round works also came from my design background. Just thinking about houses being so square or rectangular, and hallways being so long, I think something round really softens a space.

Tell us more about your art – what medium do you use, and what do you like about it?
The originals of these prints are round timber panels that I have made in Sydney – I'm a builder's daughter and the idea came about one day in a workshop with Dad. I use a mixture of acrylic and oil paint on the timber panels, and I love the way you can apply and pare back on timber. I just feel it gives me more freedom.

I have the prints made using a digital process and I just love the results – you can see all the textures so clearly it's almost a 3D effect; it's super high quality. I decided on oak frames for the shoot because I like the warmth it adds, and I think it works in both traditional or contemporary interiors, and on white walls which most of us have!



Tell us about your studio and your creative process.
My studio is at home, and I'm in there for about 4 hours a day while my girls are at school. I snatch other bits and pieces of time when the girls are around but I really need time to get into the process. I'm usually working on 5 or 6 works at a time, and I work through those over 3 or 4 weeks. While the work looks quite uncontrolled, I'm actually very controlled about the way I apply the paint, and then I let it do its thing to some extent. I'm quite calculated about the way I want it to blend together, but of course my mood and emotions affect my work and it ends up taking on a mind of its own.

Some of the works are more tonal, and some more multi-coloured. What's your approach to colour?
These prints actually come from two different collections. The pieces with the graphic X came from an exhibition I did at the Sydney Children's Hospital. I spent some time thinking about happiness and love and ended up with the X, which used to be a symbol of a sworn oath and ended up as the kiss we put in texts and emails. The more colourful pieces were inspired by Aboriginal art and are a little less restrained, colour-wise.

I usually start with 3 colours. Being from a design background, we always group into 3, so I like an odd number. I refine the 3 colours I've chosen to just the right shade, I'm seeing in my mind, and I go from there. There's always black and white in there to ground the work, although sometimes that gets lost in the process, and I do like a metallic element too, which I use as a neutral.

Where do you find inspiration?
Just everyday life really – sayings that I hear or that I've always heard, especially from my Italian mother. Sometimes a word will come to be as a colour and that kicks something off. I like writing, so I go back over my journals for inspiration. Some of the names of the works are a bit of a puzzle or a bit humorous – I want to provide a story or talking point for a work which might hang on someone's walls for years.

I'm definitely inspired by fashion and I love Instagram and spend a lot of time there. I try to provide a rounded picture of myself there, rather than just my work, and I like to think it helps people to get to know me and my style before they approach me about my art.

What do you hope your art brings to people?
As an artist, you put a lot of time and effort and attachment into the work so I definitely feel something when they go out in the world. That said, I love seeing where they go – I love getting pictures from clients about where they've put one of my works, or hearing that they're planning a colour scheme around a painting.

I actually like that because my work is so abstract, people sometimes find something in there that I didn't intend. Sometimes people find a face in my paintings , or their own special meanings – everyone's can get something different and special from an artwork