Art
No Order Magazine talks with the artist.
My name is Hamish Wilson and I am 23 years old, currently living in Brisbane. I am an oil painter producing figurative works, floral still lifes and self portraits, and I also run an art and music magazine called Artful Heads.
How did your career begin?
I was always interested in art at school and had dabbled with painting before moving to Brisbane from the Byron Bay area. The first year or so here I wasn’t really aware of any kind of art scene, didn’t know too many arty people so I had this idea to do a magazine where I could go around interviewing local artists and musicians and thought it would be a good way to connect with people and try out a few different things because I dropped out of uni and didn’t really know what I was doing. I remember going to Zaide’s studio in West End and seeing his painting set up and I was like this is pretty awesome, I kinda want to get into painting again. After going through a bit of a breakup I was feeling pretty lost so painting was a good way to get out of my head. I fell in love with painting and started getting into a couple of group shows. The mag was getting a bit of momentum and I started organising my own art exhibitions.
What are some of the biggest influences on your art and practice?
One, music. I really love music and especially lyrics. I can get super inspired by just listening to an album and one or two lines from a song can really inspire me to start working on a painting. Contemporary Australian painters like Ben Quilty and Guido Maestri, along with Nick Herd - I am a big fan of his. I surround myself with all their work - as you can see in the studio. Everytime I see their work I’m like, “oh man, I want to make a painting like that.” I run a magazine and getting to visit people’s studios and see the way they work is super inspiring. Going to local art shows has been big because I feel like a lot of the art that people here in Meanjin produce is pretty raw. Not that it’s not developed, it’s more that it’s not super catered to a high-brow kind of art world. It’s very distinct, people like Dan Hewitt - I am a big fan of his work - it’s so his style and it’s not going to change for anybody. So, seeing artists like that and seeing their work in group shows is inspiring. Lastly, just my mood or what’s happening in my personal life is pretty inspiring in terms of the subject matter for a work. I do also like flowers - putting the flowers up and watching them wilt is interesting. I find them to be very evocative.
Image credit: Liv Bridge.
What advice do you have for emerging artists?
It feels so weird to give advice as I have only been painting for two years but something that I think was very important to me and I really believe is to just put yourself out there as much as you can. Nothing you are going to make as an emerging artist is going to be perfect - it’s not going to be exactly as you see in your head. The paintings I made when I first started painting were so bad, both technically…they were just not good paintings. I just didn’t care about getting judged for sharing them, I was just like “yeah I made this thing, I am going to put it out there and try and get into this exhibition.” I had some really nice people early on support me - they thought those paintings were cool and it made me want to keep making them. Just put it out there, you never know what might come from it.
Read the full interview in Issue 04
Published: 18th July 2025