Anna-Carien Goosen is a figurative artist based in Sydney. She received her Fine Arts Degree at the University of Pretoria, where she developed a passion for filling sketchbooks with drawings of strangers, learnt how to refine her own linseed oil, and conveniently bagged a handsome Environmental Planner. Together they agree on how to raise three boys, but not how to garden. Currently they live happily across bushland with wallabies, cockatoo’s and bush turkeys messing with their gardening philosophies. This environment often creeps into her paintings.
Anna-Carien has honed the skill of hanging art straight through numerous solo and group exhibitions in Australia, South Africa and abroad. In Australia, she’s been awarded the Naracoorte National Art prize (2019), and in South Africa, the Portrait Society’s ‘Living Portrait Master Competition’ (2017) , as well as an ATKVeertjie for children’s illustration (2005)

“My work is layered, figurative and portrays an ambiguous space where interior and exterior reality merge.
I observe the physical and emotional space around individuals, fascinated that our minds shift seamlessly between various physical, virtual and emotional realities. Intrigued by these blurred boundaries, I play on the border between dream and reality, strength and fragility, control and abandon.
Nature forms a huge part of my sensory experience and is used as a symbol for realities felt but not seen. I focus on light and movement, taking joy in the alchemy of oil paint and the ancient abandon of charcoal.”