David Meagher

Aug 13, 2025 – 5.00am

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Even on a wet winter’s day, Paul Davies’ white-walled studio in Sydney sparkles. But when the weather breaks and the morning sun floods into the upper-level space, in a Federation-era building in Paddington, the tiny multicoloured paint splatters covering the floor light up like so many Hundreds & Thousands.

It’s a fitting location to be talking about Davies’ latest series of paintings, Constructed Realities, going on show at Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane later this month. There’s a dream-like intensity to the artist’s work – often featuring mid-century Californian homes drenched in summer light, curvilinear shapes, vertical lines, pastel colours, swimming pools and lush foliage. The houses in his paintings look familiar but at the same time quite surreal.

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