Exploring Orange: A Landscape Residency with Anne-France Fulgence

Anne-France Fulgence painting en plein air in the Orange region for her Artist Residency.

Exploring Orange: A Landscape Residency with Anne-France Fulgence
2024 Regional Landscape Prize Residency

We’re delighted to welcome artist Anne-France Fulgence to Orange this month as part of her residency prize from last year’s Regional Landscape Prize.

Thanks to the generous support of Quest Orange, Anne-France has been awarded two weeks of complimentary accommodation while she explores and responds to our stunning local landscapes through painting and drawing. During her stay, she’ll be working en plein air across the region, capturing the colour, light, and quiet drama of the Central West.

Anne-France’s residency is a core part of our ongoing commitment to supporting and celebrating artists working within the Australian landscape tradition. We can’t wait to share the results of her time here later in the year, when her new body of work will be exhibited at The Corner Store Gallery.

A huge thank you to Quest Apartments Orange for making this opportunity possible. Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes updates as Anne-France’s residency unfolds.

Anne-France on location outside of Orange NSW.

I am very grateful to have received the Artist Residency Award in the 2024 Regional Landscape Art Prize, conducted by The Corner Store Gallery in Orange and its director Madeline Young.

Madeline is a young, hard-working art entrepreneur, whose partnership with Quest Orange provided me with wonderful accommodation as a base for two weeks of exploration and inspiration in the Central West of NSW.

Being outdoors every day, I was extremely lucky with the weather: two weeks of perfect skies, not cold, not windy.

The rural landscapes around Clifton Grove and Lewis Pond are stunning – high dried grass, willow and dark willow trees, pure white bark eucalyptus, undulating hills, tiny rivulets, dirt roads.

The landscape had a soft feel, very sensual, very beautiful.

This residency gave me a renewed sense of focus in my work; an immediacy not found in the studio. I am not a plein air painter, but I strived doing many experimentations. The beauty of the surroundings was continuously enchanting: the quality of the light, the birds, the tall grass, the changing shape of trees and bushes, and the soft colours of the land in the changing season.

I was able to grow in my practice, embrace and discover the joy of art making in plein air, and to have plenty of quality time to immerse myself in this wonderful landscape.

I left feeling nourished and revitalised. - Anne- France Fulgence.

Capturing the subtle shifts of light across the hills of Orange.

Tools of the trade – Anne-France’s drawing materials.

Studies in progress during the residency.

A landscape study completed during Anne-France's residency in Orange.

A-F uses found animal bones as art tools for scouring paper.

Quick studies that trace the rhythm and movement of the local environment.

This piece reflects Anne-France’s sensitivity to the natural contours of the land.

The ever-changing landscape of Orange – a rich source of inspiration.