Wilson is an expatriate Australian artist, based in Ubud where he lives with his wife and family. He is also a talented early childhood teacher and has taught for more than 15 years in schools in Australia and Indonesia. 

When not creating art, or raising his two lively children, he teaches at Pelangi School. The artist’s funky, illustrative artwork has been exhibited in Australia, Lombok and Bali. Wilson has been in the archipelago for 10 years. His work ranges across genres, across media and styles and includes drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and murals. 

When asked about his creative journey, Wilson said humans and nature were important aspects that brought him to his current artistic place. 

“I began with the inspiration of ‘nature’, documenting nature,” he explained. 

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“Then ‘human nature’. I began investigating the effects of the trauma in our lives and how we treat each other. During this time, I worked with many diverse people as a teacher. I saw people at their best and also their worst. Now I seem to be looking at ‘the nature of humans’, the complexities, as well as the simplicities of life.”

Wilson’s early pieces reveal an amazing technical skill in intricate portraits of the natural environment in his home, the island state of Tasmania, but it is on the Island of Gods that the artist found his true voice, developing his signature style.

“Much of my inspiration comes from the dynamics of life in Bali,” he said. 

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“With people from all around the world and from all walks of life, Bali offers an incredible melting pot of motivation to create artworks. I find it fascinating how it somehow all organically works together.” 

Wilson is an artist who puts spontaneity on the canvas. Instead of doing preliminary sketching, he will just directly work onto the medium fast and spontaneously. 

“There is usually a vague composition set out in my mind. This gets me started. From this point onward a strange phenomenon happens. It is almost as if the lines appear on the surface. I roughly follow them to make an image. After that it’s all about balance, mark making, tones and all those little technical details, but mostly it is about being expressive,” he said. 

Having the need to express his creative mind without procrastinating, it is usual to see him working on several projects at any one time. He is not in a rush, however, believing that every piece of art will take him on a special journey of its own. 

“To arrive at a balance where a work is completed, I interact with the piece until a point where I feel intuitively there is a balance of marks, of color, of lines. It is like the work itself tells me when it is complete. I strive to create mood in every image. This brings the works to life. I enjoy this challenge,” he said. 

Wilson’s quirky artworks provide a sense of fun, a little spice and a splash of color in a sometimes mundane life. The artworks weave imagination and dreams with the gritty realities of day-to-day life in Indonesia. 

Locals in Bali are familiar with the artist’s colorful street-side murals on cafes in Sanur and Ubud. He also works beyond conventional canvas and murals, painting his colorful characters and in his signature style in a playground and on speedboats, a motor scooter, a guitar and a surfboard. He has also illustrated a coffee table book, Looking for Borneo, and his artwork graces the cover of a music CD, Crazy Little Heaven. 

Wilson’s Looking for Borneo works were on exhibition at Paradiso Café in Ubud throughout the month of October. 

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