Australian artist Paul Davies is bringing new life to traditional Queensland architecture through his vibrant and surreal paintings that place iconic homes in unexpected, dream-like settings. His latest series, "Constructed Realities," will be showcased at Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane later this month, featuring classic Queenslander houses painted in technicolor hues and placed in fantastical environments.

Davies works from his bright, paint-splattered studio in a Federation-era building in Paddington, Sydney, where multicolored paint drops on the floor sparkle like confetti when sunlight streams through the windows. Even on gray winter days, the white-walled space maintains an energetic atmosphere that reflects the artist's distinctive style. His paintings are characterized by their dream-like intensity, often featuring mid-century Californian homes bathed in summer light, curved shapes, vertical lines, pastel colors, swimming pools, and lush vegetation.

For "Constructed Realities," Davies has introduced Queensland's iconic house style as his new subject matter, but with a surreal twist that makes familiar structures appear otherworldly. The artist depicts these traditional homes in incongruous settings - one Queenslander sits under a bright yellow sky surrounded by palm trees, while another appears mysteriously shrouded in snow. These houses look recognizable yet completely surreal at the same time.

The inspiration for placing Queenslanders in these unexpected environments came to Davies during drives between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. "There are these big blocks of land, on that drive, that are like graveyards for old Queenslanders," he explains. "They put the houses on trucks and move them around; you see them going up and down the highway." This observation of displaced homes sparked his artistic vision of architectural transplantation.

Having lived in Los Angeles for six years before returning to Australia in 2019, Davies draws fascinating parallels between Queensland's classic architecture and California's modernist Case Study Houses. He notes that the Case Study Houses, designed in the postwar period as a housing solution for a growing population, "were meant to be mass-produced and super functional." Davies sees similar qualities in Queenslanders, explaining, "There's a beautiful handmade element to them, but they were designed to be built quickly for a growing population."

Davies' path to becoming an architectural painter began somewhat unexpectedly during his student days at the University of New South Wales College of Fine Art. Initially wanting to study painting but failing to make the cut, he enrolled in sculpture as a backup option. "In that course we looked at architecture and the built environment," Davies recalls. "At the time I was disappointed because what I really wanted to do was paint, but it opened my mind and got me thinking about architecture as sculpture within a space."

Today, Davies has achieved significant recognition in the art world, with his works held in prestigious collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, Sydney Living Museums, the Museum of Brisbane, and HOTA on the Gold Coast. His artistic development has been further enriched through prestigious residencies at the Cité Internationales des Arts in Paris and Taliesin West at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Phoenix, experiences that have deepened his understanding of architectural forms and their artistic possibilities.