Paula Kos was born in country South Australia and spent time in Adelaide and Canberra before settling on the Sunshine Coast in recent years. She honed her artistic skills at every opportunity around a business career and family commitments for the majority of her years. Her move to the Sunshine Coast allowed her to embrace her passion for painting as a full-time pursuit. Emerging as an artist, and entering exhibitions from 2021, she has been selected as a finalist in many art prizes across Australia and sold works in small galleries.
Paula’s work predominantly depicts the human form in oil paint. Her love for figurative art has evolved from her constant and favourite pastime of drawing her family when she was young. Primarily a self-taught artist, she has been consistent and dedicated in developing her style over many years from exposure to various painting mediums, subjects and methods under the guidance of many award-winning Australian artists through workshops and connections. Paula has come full circle, returning to what is true in her heart and painting people in their everyday lives. She portrays unguarded moments in time, however ordinary, which we all experience and which are rarely captured, highlighting scenes within everyday life as being worthy and important.
Established in 2021, the National Emerging Art Prize was created to provide an annual, highly visible national platform to identify, promote and support the most promising emerging visual and ceramic artists in Australia.