About

Kristen Finlay is an Australian artist based in Coffs Harbour, NSW.

Her current work is a return to abstraction — a place she has worked from for many years — with a focus on colour, shape, space and surface.

After a recent period of painting still life, botanical subjects and familiar objects, Kristen is moving away from direct representation and back towards a more intuitive, abstract way of working.

Observation still plays a part, but less as something to record and more as something to respond to: a colour relationship, a shape, a sense of light, a memory of landscape, or the feeling of something noticed.

Working mainly in acrylic, she builds the paintings in layers, adding and removing, covering and revealing, adjusting marks, edges and areas of colour until the painting begins to find its own structure.

Her work explores balance and tension, stillness and movement, what is revealed and what remains unresolved.

Exhibitions

2026
Botanical Musings — Laneway Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW
Solo Exhibition, January - February 2026

Fairy Floss Fantasy — Laneway Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW
Group Exhibition, March 2026

Gather — Arts Mid North Coast, May - June 2026

2025
The Female of the Species — Laneway Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW
Group Exhibition, April 2025

Compact — Arts Mid North Coast
August 2025

Contact

For artwork enquiries, collaborations or exhibition opportunities, please get in touch.