COLLABORATIONS
Dan Rushford | McMullin Journal
Sydney-based artist Dan Rushford’s creative journey is deeply tied to the pursuit of a meaningful long life. His work draws from personal experiences that resonate with his core values, serving as both a personal exploration and a visual celebration of age and living vibrantly. Through a warm, inviting colour palette and perfect imperfections, Rushford's art stirs sensory memories—whether it’s the smoke in your nostrils at an outdoor cafe in the morning, or drifting off in the burning sun.
Join us as we spend a morning with Dan, discovering everything from his favourite records to the experiences that shaped his art career.
Tell us a little bit about your journey to becoming an artist. Was there ever a moment you can recall feeling the spark of “Oh, this is it”?
I have always been a drawer since I was young. I remember going to art classes after school in a dreamy little bush-surrounded classroom. I was around 8 years old and studying the art of Reg Mombassa and painting surfers on old plywood boards and experimenting with mixed mediums and mosaics. In retrospect, this was such an amazing experience. It’s interesting that as I got older I never stopped creating but moved further and further away from that careless exploration and started to impose restrictions upon myself stylistically. I was always creating art for how it would be perceived. It was only when I started painting art for my own house, to make it feel like ours, like a home, that we stepped back from my first painting in years and said “that’s it.”
What inspires you to get into the creative flow state?
If I see the face or body of a person that tells a story, I’m already painting in my head. Often I catch myself designing characters that I haven’t seen, but represent a feeling. It’s identifying the tiny details in that person that resonate so strongly, I can think about that for hours. After that: some coffee, the bush sounds around my studio, and my dog sitting next to me , and I’m ready to paint.
"I have always been a drawer since I was young... I was always creating art for how it would be perceived."
How would you describe your style? How has it evolved?
I like to think that I try to paint without style because it’s another barrier to putting paint on the canvas. I obviously have one, but the common thread through my body of work is what my hands can do, and what they’re unsure of, and then my trust that a wobbly line is more relatable than a straight one.
We know you love records. What do you currently have on rotation? Would you say there is a link between your artistic creations and music?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Carole King and singing along with my dog. When we need a bit of energy we dance to The Heptones: Meet The Now Generation. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Texas Moon are always on repeat too. There’s definitely a link. I think it’s more about how the music makes me feel while I’m mark-making that comes through in the work. Sometimes what I’m painting makes me hear the songs in a different light too.
How do you fill your days aside from creating art?
I’m lucky to have a lot of passions that I get to fill my days with and beautiful people to share them. Surfing, writing songs, recording with friends and going for meaningless walks through beautiful streets and daydreaming with my partner and our dog are what usually fill in my time around painting.
In what unique and interesting ways do you find inspiration for your prints?
I think it’s as simple as seeing a man by the ocean, basking in the sun with his feet up on a wall as if he’s trying to catch every ray possible and chatting to him for a while. Or thinking about the exact way someone’s hand holds a cigarette like an old friend.
Can you walk us through your creative process — from conceptualising an idea to bringing it to life?
Everything’s guided by what I would want hanging in my living room. The questions I ask myself through the process are: what it this reminding me to feel or do? Is that reflective of how I want to live? Through the painting process I’m usually running through words that could become a part of the character and tell that story too.
What’s next for Dan Rushford? What directions are you looking forward to moving in or themes are you looking forward to exploring?
Right now, I feel like I have only scratched the surface of what I’m currently doing. Representing age as something beautiful and meaningful is something I think is really potent to me right now. Exploring what a good life is through older people, they’re the ones who have lived it. Showing how personality deepens like wrinkles. And hopefully allowing people a moment to stop and think about how they can find the peace or nonchalance or enduring love that I try to capture.
