Sean O'Shea is a contemporary visual artist based in Byron Bay, on the Far North Coast of NSW, Australia who is interested in uncovering issues around identity and belonging; exploring figures and textures that landscape the human condition. He approaches his compositions with the belief that his paintings are living objects. This means that what lies beneath the surface of the painting is of equal importance to him. From this base, he is able to project an image which invariably brings forth an emotional response. Sean is also 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. The first brush stroke is the beginning of an untold story and from there the possibilities for him are unlimited.

However, what makes his artistic endeavour exceptional is his ability to touch our emotions, whatever his vision, projecting his creativity into a solid space before our eyes,sculpting our senses so that we pause to reflect on the colour, texture, light and form he uses so artfully.  Sean sees the core value of his work as being connected to music, the sounds resonating in the layers of paint hidden from the naked eye. It is not surprising that he likens his work to a musical score saying that the lines and colours act like musical cords enabling the painting to flow, breaking the static image. 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.

Another interpretation is to see the movement of paint on the canvas and the brushes and material as puppetry that tells a story using symmetry, rhythm and form. Sean’s gift is to create a certainty of timelessness for certain forms and to bring forth feelings and emotions from a static work. Art is surely born in the mind and it is the ability of a truly creative artist to roam the senses of the viewer and give emotions a visual form. That is why art is an emotion and unlike other emotions it appears without desire other than to own and appreciate its beauty. Sean's art studio is located in the coastal town of Byron Bay in Northern 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.