Featured Artists

In 2024, Plein Air Down Under presents three internationally renowned artists to paint and demonstrate their skills during the festival.  The artists, Lori Putnam (USA), Tony Robinson (Ireland) and Leon Holmes (Australia) will bring their distinct perspectives, adding an enriching global dimension.

Workshops are available for those with a PADU 2024 Festival Ticket – Registration links for workshops are accessible from the workshop page and each artist’s profile page.

LORI PUTNAM (USA)

Lori’s work celebrates life, nature, and the human experience, rendered with remarkable skill, passion, and creativity.

Lori Putnam is a contemporary American painter whose work is characterized by loose and expressive brushwork, intelligent use of colour, and modern composition. Her art encompasses diverse subjects, including landscape, still life, and figurative works.

One of the most notable aspects of Putnam’s art is her use of colour. She has the masterful ability to mix luminous hues that are simultaneously bold and harmonious. These sensitive colour choices lend a unique sense of personality and emotion to her work.

TONY ROBINSON (Ireland)

Tony Robinson is primarily a painter of oil portraits and plein air landscapes, he has won several awards and commissions. He was a participant in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020 and has given many portrait painting workshops.

Whether for a landscape or a portrait, Tony prefers to work alla prima, from life, whenever possible. His chief goal is to capture the portrait sitter’s likeness and presence or, in a landscape painting, to record the atmosphere and sense of place. His style strives to be both direct and nuanced, aiming to move swiftly towards a resolution of the image, while remaining ready to capitalise on random marks or effects and what they can contribute to the end result.

Leon Holmes (WA)

Leon is an international award-winning plein air artist, lecturer and ambassador. 

He paints from life on location, without the aid of photography, using his small studies as reference for larger studio works created in his home studio in Mandurah.

A professional artist since 2003, Leon paints outdoors in the old masters’ style of impressionistic realism.  He works in oil to quickly capture natural light and colour.