Sean O'Shea is a contemporary visual artist based in Byron Bay, Australia who is interested in uncovering issues around identity and belonging and who explores figures and textures that landscape the human condition. He approaches composition with the realisation that the painting is a living object, so what lies beneath the surface of the painting is of equal importance. Sean is interested in interpreting light, which is why so many of his paintings have a luminous quality about them, for he captures light in a masterly way. He is interested in how colour and tone affect the atmosphere and mood of a painting. He calls this the unseen rhythms, harmonies and light; the final relationship between the painted scene and the viewer.

Sean is currently exploring the relationship between the visual artist and the musician. He is interested in communicating the emotion of music through the painted medium and how music can be a metaphor for artistic expression. By this he means it is a way of discovering the relationship between sounds, colours, lines, shapes and textures. His work cleverly shows how all this comes together to tell a story. The idea he says, is that one form of art can externalize from a sensory experience of sounds, to a visual perception on canvas and is therefore the basis of many of his paintings.

For Sean, the core value of most of his work is connected to music; the sounds resonating in the layers of paint hidden from the naked eye. It is not surprising therefore that Sean likens his work to a musical score. A recent  series of paintings was 'Cello Sonata in One Movement'. In it he set out to explore the sounds of a cello, painting the space and silence between the notes and transcending literal interpretation. Lines and colours acted like musical cords enabling the painting to flow, breaking the static. The first brush stroke was the beginning of an untold story and from there the possibilities for him were unlimited.

Sean says the movement of paint on canvas and the brushes and materials that he uses are the puppetry that allow the symmetry and rhythm in a painting to find its harmony and balance. Sean's art studio is located in the coastal town of Byron Bay in New South  Wales, popular for its beautiful natural environment with its stunning  beaches and rainforests. Byron Bay is home to a vigorous and constantly expanding arts community and is now a central meeting place for artists of  all disciplines.