Draft:Libby Watkins

Libertyne Watkins (Libby Watkins) (born 1984) is a contemporary Australian artist known for hyper-realistic, large-scale artworks of luxury objects and places inspired by her hyper-realistic island called "Paradiso” using a self-developed multi-medium technique.

Biography
Watkins was born and raised in Sydney, (1) Australia. She studied Fashion Design at Ultimo Tafe. Business, Textile design at RMIT University, before dropping out to pursue a career in fashion design. Designing for Australian Brands as a freelance artist. Launching her own brand in 2011. Watkins lived and practiced in Sydney, before moving to London and returning to Sydney.

Watkins’ practice started as a hobby outside of design. She has no formal art training and considers herself "not very creative.] Her works are primarily resort style(2) with hyper-realistic, large-scale mixed media artworks of luxury objects and places inspired by her faux island utopia existing only in her mind, Paradiso. Artworks can sometimes take 200 hours to complete. Working with ink on paper her pieces are achieved through layers of what she refers to as mini brush strokes. Watkins credits her iconic Palm tree to having her own Gallery in Sydney’s prestigious Palm Beach. She uses photographs collected with edited saturated lighting, and a pencil as a guide for their placement.

In 2013 Watkins expanded her practice with the launch of her textile designs showing in New York and Paris. The resulting art collaborations with brands Tory Burch and Calvin Klein. In 2015 she set up her own publishing house and launched a colouring book, Escape to Paradiso. Back in 2018, the artist did an immersive takeover of Sydney’s Iconic Manly Pacific Hotel. With a foyer as an exhibition space. Many installations including her iconic signature Giant Jellyfish cascading down the main Marble stairs confronting guests. An executive from Australia paid $40,000 AUD for a painting of her signature Palm tree. More widely-known owners of her pieces include a list of A-listers who visited Palm Beach during the opening of her gallery. She has had artwork featured in Threebirds Renovations. (2)(3). Seen in publications such as House and Garden Magazine. (3) She creates original works and also limited edition luxury objects for home and wardrobe.

Exhibitions

 * Colossal- Cronulla Beach NSW (2013)
 * No 5- Palm Beach NSW (2014)
 * Escape to Paradiso- Manly, Australia (2018) (reference 1)
 * Paradiso- Palm Beach  (2019)
 * La Palma - Paris, France (2020)
 * La Palma - New York, United States (2020)