Creative Contemplation
Join host Suzanne Lago Arthur for engaging discussions with creative professionals about their art and what inspires and feeds their creativity.
Creative Contemplation
Mary Tonkin; A Painter Intimately Connected With The Australian Bush
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
August 11, 2026
Creative Contemplation
S5E1 Mary Tonkin; A Painter Intimately Connected With The Australian Bush
Season 5’s first guest, Australian Landscape painter Mary Tonkin, sets the bar high for this season of guests. Podcast Host and Creator, Suzanne Lago Arthur has a deep conversation with Mary about her work, her development as an artist and what it feels like to paint from a more sensory & intuitive approach to the landscape.
BIO:
Mary Tonkin is one of Australia’s leading landscape painters whose epic, immersive paintings respond to the changing seasons, lights and viewpoints of the bush where she paints en plein air.
Tonkin holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours, 1995) and a Master of Fine Arts from Monash University (2002), where she has also lectured.
Tonkin's recent exhibitions include; a 2026 survey show entitled "Among the Trees" at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney and "Rambles" a solo show at the Benalla Art Gallery in 2025. In addition, she has had solo exhibitions at Australian Galleries in Melbourne and Sydney since 1999. Her work "Ramble, Kalorama" was exhibited at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair in 2022.
Instagram: @mary.tonkin
Early Influences Mentioned:
Host Bio:
Suzanne Lago Arthur is a contemporary American realist painter from Northern Virginia. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban-American parents, her artistic explorations were nurtured from an early age by her family.
Through her paintings Suzanne explores the themes of beauty, transience and memory. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally in such venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, Booth Museum of Western Art in Cartersville, GA, the United States Interests Section, Havana, Cuba and in art galleries across the United States. She holds a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University.
Website: www.lagoarthurstudio.com
Instagram: Suzanne Lago Arthur (@lagoarthurstudio)
Logo design by Elisa Nader, Mag7
Artwork, "Abby in Contemplation"