Contemporary Australian artist, Jacqui Armstrong
ARTIST BIO
Jacqui Armstrong is a contemporary expressionist artist based in Perth, Western Australia. Her early love of art began as a young girl, immersed in art books, gallery visits, and the works of masters such as Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dalí. Growing up on the rugged north-west coast of Tasmania, Jacqui later moved to Sydney in 1982 before settling in Perth in 2010.
For decades, life’s demands of raising a family and running a successful small business meant her artistic practice remained in the background. In 2020, as the world slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacqui returned to painting with renewed passion. Her instinctive and self-taught approach, free from formal constraints, has been shaped through experimentation and workshops with both Australian and international artists.
Drawn to the boundless freedom of abstraction, Jacqui explores colour, form, and texture as a way of telling deeply personal stories. Influenced by the expressive fluidity of Petra Schott and Beatriz Simón, her works capture raw emotion and a sense of place.
Since 2020, Jacqui’s paintings have been exhibited widely across Perth and regional Western Australia, and her art has been featured in Havenist, Artistcloseup, and Art Edit magazines. In 2025, she was shortlisted for the prestigious Claremont Art Awards, where her painting A Quiet Place received a ‘Highly Commended’. That same year, her work was also selected for Art for Aid with Perth Doctors-MAP at the Holmes à Court Gallery.
Jacqui continues to create from her Perth studio, where each new work becomes a dialogue between her inner world and the expressive language of abstraction.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Jacqui Armstrong's dynamic abstracts convey distinct and deeply personal stories, derived from her everyday encounters and experiences. Beginning with a narrative that initially forms and relentlessly remains in her mind's eye, she becomes compelled to portray it on the canvas in a bold and evoking manner. Her stories cover diverse and far-reaching facets of her life by exploring personal family connections, emotional tribulations and the ingenuity of her organic environment. Encompassing an amplitude of colours, textures and layers, Jacqui's works are created through the application of mixed media on stretched canvas. Much of the colour work is deposited with sizeable brushes on large-scale canvases, and added texturisations are achieved with a variety of tools that produce unique interest and scope. When viewed concurrently, these well-balanced components reveal contrasting colour relationships, compelling shapes and atmospheric undercurrents. With the desire to instigate stirring connections between her art and her viewers, Jacqui produces emotionally charged and considered compositions. With an attraction to the aspects and tenets of her stories that are universal and unify us, she creates with a focused interest in the themes of love and empathy, wonder and grief, beauty and passion.
CURRICULUM VITAE
CONTACT
PROFILE
I am a contemporary artist living and working in Perth, Western Australia.
My work is driven by intuition, song and a love of colour and shapes. I find inspiration for the stories I paint in my everyday encounters. In my mother's bravery as she battled cancer. In the bright patch of mushrooms sprouting beneath a canopy of leaves. In celebrating those who inspire me and in the wondrous ingenuity of nature. Inspiring stories are everywhere you care to look.
For me, the power of story is its ability to connect us. While we each hold a distinct perspective and live our own inimitable narratives, there are common tenets that unite us. Love and grief, empathy and wonder, beauty and passion.
EXHIBITIONS & FEATURES
2020 Tresillian Art Centre ‘Student and Tutors Exhibition’ 2 -18 October
2021 Bluethumb Large Statement Art - Featured Artist and staff selections
2021 Art Upmarket, WA - Exhibitor 16 October.
2021 Art Marx Gallery Fremantle ‘Setting the Tone’ 16 December - 17 January
2021 Cossack Gallery, Cossack, WA ‘Hello-Goodbye’ 19 December - 10 February
2022 European Concepts, Artist In Residence Perth, WA - 10 January - 7 March
2022 GHS & St Hilda’s OSA Art Exhibition 27 January - 1 July
2022 Art Marx Gallery – ‘Waters Edge’ 12 March - 10 April
2022 Art Marx Gallery - ‘Light Flows’ 23 April - 22 May
2022 Regal Concept Design – ‘Awash in Wanderlust’ : A series 20 May - 11 July
2022 Cossack Art Awards 17th July - 7 August
2022 Art Marx Gallery – ‘Transitional Thoughts’ 16 September - 16 October
2022 Art Upmarket, WA - Exhibitor 15 October
2022 GHS & St Hilda’s OSA Art Exhibition - Exhibitor 27 - 30 October
2022 White Brick Gallery, Joint exhibition 16 November - 26 November
2023 ‘Havenist Magazine’ ISSUE #3 - Featured statement work ’Jellyfish III’ Autumn/Winter (Page 92).
2023 White Brick Gallery, Joint Perth Abstract Artists 16 May – 16 August
2023 Art Marx Gallery – ‘Transition Exhibition’ 9 June - 30 June
2023 Artist Close-Up Magazine ISSUE#8 ‘Neon Planet’ featured on the cover.
2023 Cossack Art Awards 23 July - 13 August
2023 Town of Claremont ‘Art Awards and Exhibition’ 12 - 27 August
2023 Upmarket Fair WA Exhibitor 14 October
2023 GHS & St Hilda’s OSA Art Exhibition - Exhibitor 26 October - 29 October
2024 The Agency Gallery Solo Exhibition 29 January - 3 February
2024 Havenist Magazine’ ISSUE #4 Featured work ’Jellyfish IV’ Kitchen inspiration Guide (Page 56).
2024 Art To Art ‘Unearthed Art Prize’ Finalist - Melbourne February 29
2024 Artist In Residence - European Concepts, Perth - 31 May - 5 July
2024 GHS & St Hilda’s OSA Art Exhibition Exhibitor 24- 27 October
2024 The Agency Gallery Solo Exhibition November
2025 Gallows Gallery, WA ‘XXIV’ joint exhibition 4 - 14 February
2025 Town of Claremont Art Awards - Awarded ‘Highly Commended’ by the judges.
2025 GHS & St Hilda’s OSA Art Exhibition. - Exhibitor
2025 Gallery Aura, Kojonup - Exhibitor