On any given morning, you can probably find Avalyn Doyle somewhere on the Ovens River. Whether by bridge in Porepunkah, or along the Canyon Walk, she’ll likely have her camera in hand and be collecting ideas for her next painting.
Avalyn Doyle in her studio. Photograph: Daniel A’Vard
Avalyn is an artist who lives and works in Porepunkah. Walking into her house is walking into her studio – so abundant with paintings that they overflow the walls and every surface has some kind of artwork on it. Pride of place belong to black cockatoos soaring over the range and various scenes of rivers, which fascinate her.
Avalyn sees herself as a record keeper, and works with her paintings to tell the story of places. Having started out as a pure landscape painter, she eventually found her niche looking deeper, beyond the surface view of the landscape and into the stories that lie beneath. When she may be painting the Ovens River, she is thinking about the source up on the slopes of Mt Hotham and the memory that the water carries as it flows down through each of our townships.
Avalyn painting in her studio. Photograph: Daniel A’Vard
This fascination with stories of place grew from a time in Outback NSW, on an abandoned sheep station alongside the Paroo. Here she started painting things that she didn’t really see in the river, fragments of life, movement and depth. She’s also happy to share her version of the story with anybody connected with her paintings. She recently sold a piece to a single dad in Warburton who told her that he wanted his children to grow up with a sense of the painting's true nature.
She paints in bursts of inspiration, and while she paints quickly, she will often leave a work to sit for months or even years before coming back to them, having learnt in that time the necessary elements to complete the work. Her painting Blow Hard – Mt Hotham was begun in 1991 when she lived on the mountain and was only recently finished in time for the Bright Art Gallery’s Winter Exhibition.
Blowhard: Mt Hotham. Painting by Avalyn Doyle. Photograph: Daniel A’Vard
If you’re interested in seeing more of Avalyn’s work, it is available for sale at Be Someone’s Rock in Bright or you can connect with her via Instagram @avalyndoyleart.
