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Tim Storrier was born in Sydney and grew up with his twin sister on the family’s grazing property Umagarlee in rural New South Wales. At age 13, Storrier’s artistic talent shone through when he won the Wellington Pastoral, Agricultural and Horticultural Society Best Drawing Award under 16 category. In 1967 Storrier began studying graphic design at the National Art School, Sydney.
Two years later, Storrier left formal study when he was offered a position as a graphic designer with the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
In 1968, at just nineteen years of age Storrier became the youngest ever recipient of the Sir John Sulman Prize for genre painting, which was again awarded to him in 1984.
Storrier travelled extensively throughout the USA, Europe, China and the Middle East and became fascinated by the vast landscapes and remote civilizations on his study tours to Egypt and Central Australia. For Storrier, the devastation and renewal of the decay of material culture and fire is intriguing. He began painting lines of fire invisibly suspended between two points, mirroring the horizon line in the distance. His blaze lines or burning ropes and fire paintings evolved in the early 1980s and are the hallmarks of his work.
Beauty and decay are evocatively represented through texture and colour, drawing on the atmospheric effects at dawn and dusk; counterbalanced by destructive elements like fire, snakes and slabs of meat. Storrier’s original vision and high technical competence allow him to explore the limitless space of the night sky, the unforgiving yet beautiful endless horizons, both lit by the atmospheric firelight of a campfire. The vastness and mood of the Australian landscape and the special role played by fire are boldly, symbolically and evocatively captured on Storrier’s canvasses. Many of his works take the viewer on a journey of discovery about mortality, decay and renewal.
Storrier gained international recognition when several of his works were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. His work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all Australian state, many regional gallery collections and numerous national and international private and corporate collections.
Storrier was appointed Trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW in 1989, and in 1994 was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to contemporary Australian art. He currently lives and works in Bathurst, NSW, painting in his own distinctive style and never losing sight of his main focus, which is to produce beautiful images of the land in which he lives ….images that matter to him.
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