🎨 Felicity Rutherford – Abstract Emotion in Acrylic

Sunshine Coast • Brisbane • Gold Coast • Across Queensland

Welcome to the vibrant world of Felicity Rutherford, a Sunshine Coast-based artist whose abstract acrylic paintings are rich in emotion, movement, and layered meaning. Her work is visually enticing and emotionally resonant — designed to bring life, energy, and curiosity into any space.

To help you explore her collection, Felicity has organized her artworks by size and format:

• Maxi – Large statement pieces

• Midi – Medium-sized works

• Mini – Small, intimate compositions

• Multi – Series and diptychs/triptychs

• Sold – Archived works that found their forever homes

Whether you're drawn to bold gestural marks, subtle layering, or expressive color fields, Felicity’s work invites you to discover a piece that speaks to your own story.

🖋️ About the Artist

Living on the Sunshine Coast, Felicity is surrounded by natural beauty — beaches, hinterlands, and the wildlife that inspires her daily. Though she’s painted for many years, her recent commitment to full-time creation has led to deep personal and artistic growth.

Her paintings reflect emotional connections to place, memory, and feeling — rather than literal depictions. Each piece is a journey, created without a preconceived plan, allowing spontaneity and intuition to guide the process.

“I never know where a painting will take me. That not-knowing is what keeps me curious, playful, and free.”

Felicity works primarily in acrylic, experimenting with mark-making, layering, and deletion. Her process is cyclical — responding to each stage with openness, until the final piece emerges. Even the hidden layers play a role in the emotional history of the work.

Her hope is that each viewer brings their own life experience to the piece, creating a personal connection that’s both powerful and unique.

MY PROCESS :

My hope is that you, as the viewer, can immerse yourself in the energy and freedom of my art, and that when coupled with your life experiences it takes on a meaning which is completely yours. This is what brings me joy.

My works tend to reflect an emotional - rather than visual - connection to my sense of place or feeling within my creative process.  Whilst there may be cues of a link to a place, memory or perception, it is very much the emotional element and connection – expressed abstractly - that appeals to me.

I never start a painting with any preconceived ideas of what I would like it to be, or where it might end up.  This 'not knowing' keeps me stimulated and interested, and provides me the opportunity to create with freedom and playfulness.  Each and every work a puzzle to be solved, and each with its own unique journey.

I like to experiment with all kinds of mediums and mark-making within the context of an acrylic painting.  I enjoy starting with open gestural marks, letting the chosen medium do what it wants to do, and then responding to what is in front of me, stepping through each level – adding and deleting as I feel is required - then reassessing and responding in a continual loop until I arrive at the finished work. 

I love the depth created by working in many layers – some peeking through in unexpected places.  Even though much is covered, these layers are all part of the ‘finished’ work and all play an important role in the journey that has been taken to get to the final product.

Each work brings with it its own history. Understanding and seeing how the history of the viewer can combine with the history of the artwork to create the most amazing and powerful emotional connection is truly wonderful.

🏆 Awards & Recognition

Felicity’s work has been honored across Queensland:

• 🥇 2025 – Monthly Finalist – Aspire Galleries Annual 'Unveiled' Competition

• 🥇 2025 – Winner, Members Award – Matthew Flinders Art Prize

• 🏅 2023 – People’s Choice Award – Foot Square Competition, Aspire Gallery

• 🥇 2023 – Best Acrylic Painting – Immanuel Arts Festival

• 🥇 2023 – 2nd Place – Matthew Flinders Art Prize

• 🎖️ 2015 – Honourable Mention – Caloundra Regional Gallery

• 🎖️ 2014 – Finalist – Local Artists Competition, Caloundra

• 🎖️ 2010 – Highly Commended – Tewantin Local Artist Competition

Her paintings now hang in homes across Australia and overseas — bringing joy, energy, and emotional depth to collectors around the world.

📬 Contact

If a piece resonates with you, Felicity welcomes your message:
📧 felicity.rutherford.art@gmail.com