Abbie Matthews is an artist and educator at The Art Gallery of Ballarat & Oxygen College. Working across drawing, painting, mixed media and printmaking, she creates portraits, landscapes and abstracts along with creating work within the design field. Over her 20 years as a practicing artist, Abbie has been involved in exhibitions and residencies both nationally and internationally. Highlights include a month-long artist residency in Indonesia and working alongside the artistic director for a Serendipity Point Films production starring Minnie Driver in Canada. Abbie has created numerous commissioned works for both private collections and public display, recently being chosen to create a work for the Art Trail through the City of Ballarat.
Her experience in teaching art is vast, having taught in Ontario and Bangkok, along with locally at Heide Museum of Modern Art, The Australian Centre for Rare Arts & Forgotten Trades and high school and primary school settings across Victoria. With a true passion for art, she paints daily in her beautiful home studio and is continually exploring new techniques and creative possibilities.
Her experience in teaching art is vast, having taught in Ontario and Bangkok, along with locally at Heide Museum of Modern Art, The Australian Centre for Rare Arts & Forgotten Trades and high school and primary school settings across Victoria. With a true passion for art, she paints daily in her beautiful home studio and is continually exploring new techniques and creative possibilities.
My work is ultimately about connection, to ourselves, to each other, to the natural world and to the quiet, steady parts of us that remain true despite the noise around us. Art, for me, is a doorway into another place, a place I have always loved to be.
I am constantly drawing with my eyes. This way of seeing has come naturally to me for as long as I can remember. I make visual connections between objects, patterns, colours, shapes, lines, and human interactions, all while being deeply attuned to people and how they feel in any given moment. The act of making connections calms me, grounds me, and reminds me of where I come from. My dad was an artist and a stone mason. He connected shapes. I have strong memories of watching him move through piles of rocks in search of the next puzzle piece for his stonework. I inherited that way of seeing, of finding the right forms, the relationships, the balance.
I feel closely connected to the idea of a tribe, something I feel we’ve drifted from in a world saturated with technology and surface level connection. I’m drawn to truth, to instinct and to people who live authentically. That honesty, that sense of real human presence is what I seek.
I believe deeply in nurturing the next generation, in validating children’s ideas, allowing them to make mistakes, and letting growth unfold naturally. Art makes this possible. In life we are surrounded by rules, but in art, there are none. As an educator, I want to say yes to ideas as often as I can and nurture genuine creativity.
I am constantly drawing with my eyes. This way of seeing has come naturally to me for as long as I can remember. I make visual connections between objects, patterns, colours, shapes, lines, and human interactions, all while being deeply attuned to people and how they feel in any given moment. The act of making connections calms me, grounds me, and reminds me of where I come from. My dad was an artist and a stone mason. He connected shapes. I have strong memories of watching him move through piles of rocks in search of the next puzzle piece for his stonework. I inherited that way of seeing, of finding the right forms, the relationships, the balance.
I feel closely connected to the idea of a tribe, something I feel we’ve drifted from in a world saturated with technology and surface level connection. I’m drawn to truth, to instinct and to people who live authentically. That honesty, that sense of real human presence is what I seek.
I believe deeply in nurturing the next generation, in validating children’s ideas, allowing them to make mistakes, and letting growth unfold naturally. Art makes this possible. In life we are surrounded by rules, but in art, there are none. As an educator, I want to say yes to ideas as often as I can and nurture genuine creativity.
2025 Ballarat Wall Art Trail
This work was commissioned by The City of Ballarat to create an artwork that will become a large pasteup mural on Unicorn Lane, just off Sturt Street.
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This work titled Between the Lines was recently exhibited in The Rutherglen Tastes of Art Prize
This work titled The Shape of a Glance was recently shortlisted for The Flanagan Art Prize
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