Lisa A. Kennedy

Lisa A. Kennedy is an artist and illustrator located on a rural properly, just outside of Mudgee in Central West New South Wales.

Her work is grounded in close observation of the landscape and wildlife that surround her — the changing creek lines, paddocks, trees and skies, and the birds and animals encountered through everyday life on the land. Rather than seeking to document these subjects precisely, Lisa is interested in the way a place is experienced and remembered: through weather, movement, changing light, repetition and the accumulation of small observations over time.

Working across charcoal, pen, ink, watercolour and mixed media, her practice is characterised by loose, searching lines and expressive mark-making. Much of her drawing is undertaken with her non-dominant hand, a process that allows greater unpredictability into the work and shifts the emphasis away from precision and towards instinct, movement and response.

Recurring throughout Lisa’s work is an interest in the relationship between people, animals and landscape, and in the quieter histories held within familiar places. Drought and rain, seasonal change, loss and renewal, motherhood and memory all find their way into the work — sometimes deliberately and sometimes only becoming apparent once a piece has taken shape.

Alongside her studio practice, Lisa works as a children’s book illustrator and has undertaken a growing number of book and commissioned illustration projects.

Her work has been selected as a finalist in regional and national exhibitions and prizes, including the WAMA Art Prize, Holmes Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art, National Contemporary Art Prize (NCAP), The Doyles Art Award, and has been exhibited throughout regional New South Wales.

Lisa is currently developing a new body of work for an upcoming solo exhibition, The Seasons We Weather, at Rosby Gallery in Mudgee in 2027.

Lisa continues to live and make work from the landscape that provides much of its subject matter — observing the ordinary, following what catches her attention, and allowing those observations to become something more.