did not. It was the culmination of years of hard work in an academic job while Lucy’s desire to paint simmered beneath the surface. ‘I always loved art and was always making stuff but didn’t really know anyone who was an artist as their job and made money from it,’ explains Lucy. ‘I did well at school but had no idea what I wanted to do, so enrolled into a Bachelor of Arts and Science and thought I would figure it out.’ And she did: ‘I absolutely loved the science and dropped the arts.’
‘I HAD A FEELING THE SEASONS WERE CHANGING AND MY TIME IN ACADEMIA WAS COMING TO AN END.’ She went on to do honours and was asked to work as a research assistant at Monash University’s Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, a job she also loved for nine years. However, during this time her paintbrush was still perfectly poised. ‘I was still painting and giving them away as presents because I had so many at home,’ she says. Painting proved to be a method of understanding the complexities of life and funnelling her emotions in a way that made sense: on the canvas. ‘There was stuff going on in my life and I was like, “Let’s think about my painting more intentionally,” and it kind of came together in a small body of work where these paintings were all having a conversation.’ Thirteen resulting works became Lucy’s first solo show in 2018. Lucy kept painting alongside her day job in the lab. She’d commute 90 minutes to and from work, but still find the time to paint because to her it was essential. She started exhibiting her work in group shows and selling her paintings online. And not even
to her friends; to strangers who shared a bond with Lucy’s compositions of nature, native birds and stilllife botanicals painted in earth pigments that she makes herself. In between all of this, Lucy also became a mother to her son Hugo. ‘I had this feeling the seasons were changing and my time in academia was coming to an end, especially since I was painting more intentionally,’ she says. ‘I wanted to make painting more of a thing in my life, so I sat down with Nathan [her partner] and said, “I think if I put the time I spend commuting and working for someone else into my own art practice, I could probably make some really good work and probably make the same money”.’ And it turned out to be true. Lucy’s commute diminished from 90 minutes to 90 seconds, as she takes her morning cuppa from the kitchen to her backyard studio. Nathan built and customised her studio from a kit he bought online and together the pair juggle their domestic and work lives, while parenting their toddler Hugo. Lucy used to paint inside the house, but having a designated space on its periphery has changed the rhythm in which she works. ‘Having long periods of time to sit with a painting is a real treat, because before I was doing a little bit here, a little bit there,’ she explains. ‘There’s also pressure now, which is good, because I know these extended blocks of time usually come along when Hugo is at daycare, someone else is with him or he’s having a nap.’ Hugo has been known to get on the tools himself and a framed artwork hangs above his parents’ bed. Lucy’s ‘go with the flow’ philosophy has anchored her art practice and domestic life. She knows you can’t rush good things and that sometimes it’s what you discover in between that ends up on the canvas. She stops. She looks around. She catalogues for later. She paints. She tells me all this on the phone. Just two strangers, sharing a yarn. n lucyhersey.com; @lucehersey
Opposite page Lucy’s media are earth pigments and plant inks that she seeks nearby and processes in her studio, built for her by her partner Nathan. Her paintings are inspired by the local landscape, birds and plant life.
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