Award-winning Tasmanian artist, Raymond Arnold presents the 2018 A Tasmanian Life lecture. Born in Melbourne in 1950, Raymond Arnold studied teaching and art in Victoria before developing his professional career after moving to Tasmania in 1983. Located in the Southern Ocean, its landscape has been tempered and shaped by exposure to a prevailing westerly air-stream. Large tracts of forest in the west of the state give way to more settled pastoral areas in the east. This dynamic natural environment has in turn, shaped Tasmanian identity and culture. Raymond's prints and paintings have reflected his examination in the construction of the Tasmanian landscape and the identification with a type of 'ground'. He enveloped himself deeply into this landscape by relocating to Queenstown in 2006.
As a complement to this he has also been researching the intaglio print medium in Europe, working in France and Scotland on a regular basis since 1993 to connect to the tradition of making etchings. Fashion and dress, his great-grandfather's experiences of the First World War as a soldier in the AIF and the decoration of medieval armour are concepts that have been played out in tandem with his investigation into the print and identification with the 'figure' as much as the ground! Raymond Arnold has held over 50 solo exhibitions and participated in group shows in Australia, Europe and the US. He is represented in the collections of the Imperial War Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Musee Courbet in France. In Australia, the National Gallery, the Australian Parliament House and various State Galleries have Raymond Arnold prints in their collection
Well known as one of Tasmania's pre-eminent printmakers Raymond is also a skilled and successful painter having twice won the Glover Prize, one of Australia's most significant awards for landscape painting.