To those familiar with Christopher Lees’ oeuvre…his landscapes (for the past twenty years) have frequently slipped through the net of geography, seeking instead to capture the spirit of the Australian environment. Lees’ hand transforms ordinary objects into surrealist icons, taking the viewer by surprise. He captures the sacred essence of natural forms with a fluidity and mastery of technique. Whilst navigating his fishing adventures, Lees’ builds up a memory bank of composites that he can later draw on – secret streams of iron-coloured water are bordered by iconic eucalypt and mountainsides littered with boulders, cliffs and crevasses. Lees’ process is straightforward, beginning with a sketch which organizes the painting, creating a sense of balance and proportion that is transposed onto the canvas. The resultant landscapes are still, stark, and mysterious. Opal miner turned landscape painter, reflects an authority in his brushstrokes which is evident in his monumental perspectives of the Australian terrain. In his twenties Lees travelled extensively throughout remote Australia, working as an opal miner. Now based in rural Victoria, his experiences of the outback unravel on the canvas in panoramic and dioramic form.
Having held numerous sell-out shows over twenty years, and since 1998 at Libby Edwards Galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane since 2000, demand for his work is now driven by overseas and local collectors. Lees’s work is currently represented in numerous significant private and corporate collections in Australia, Asia, U.S.A, Europe and the U.K.
Born 1969, Victoria
