The major part of my practice is painting with watercolours and oils. Subject matter includes landscape, portraiture and still life. The landscapes are mostly completed on location.

As an immigrant to Australia, the exotic beauty of the Illawarra and South Coast of NSW, together with the experience of the new and harsh sunlight, confronted and attracted me. Varying degrees of light change visual experience and effect tone and mood.  I observe and synthesise this along with the other factors affecting working ‘plein air’ such as weather and time. I enjoy being in the environment and interpreting it ‘live’.  I observe mainly coastal landscape and explore the compositional possibilities within a representational and expressive format.  I find that the problems presented and the dynamics of plein air painting informs my studio painting.  I work solidly within the aesthetics of painting and am inspired by its history, its methods and great practitioners.  Painting has the potential to capture an ineffable and transferable psychological presence.  In my doctoral thesis I referred to this as ‘Visual Transference’.  The notion of paint as a form of expression and a painting as a means of capturing time, space and content has absorbed me for many years and links to this concept of  Visual Transference.

Besides painting, I also coordinate a weekly life drawing and painting group for artists. This is something I have done since 2008. Drawing the figure on a weekly basis is a constant challenge to perception, observation and technique.  The ‘life work’ also presents an opportunity to analyse and experiment.

Tony Hull has won 28 different awards and prizes for his paintings. Some highlights include, the Waverley Art Prize for Works on Paper 2011 and 2005; the Art Visions Prize 2002; the John Copes Prize for Representational Art 2000; and the James Kiwi Prize for Watercolour Painting 1995. His most recent award was First Prize - Figurative/Portrait in the 2022 Kiama Society Annual Art Exhibition. Hull was also a finalist for five consecutive years in the NSW Parliamement Plein Air Prize 2011-15. Tony Hull has been an artist and teacher for over forty years and his work is held in many private and several corporate/public collections. Hull was awarded a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong in 1997. You can view his thesis at http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1751/ He has held eight solo exhibitions and participates in many group exhibitions each year.