Daniel Romaine

About Daniel Romaine

Daniel says: ‘Visions of landscapes appear to me in dots, sometimes they are familiar and other times they are unknown. It is as if my indigenous ancestors are creating the art through me. The visions of landscape are unpredictable and they stay with me – almost haunting me – until they are painted’.

Daniel Romaine was born in Sydney and grew up in Redfern. While the Assimilation Era led to estrangement from his cultural heritage, he reconnected with it later during his working life. Daniel studied art until leaving school in 1988 and while he had excelled at music and art he was raised in a strict family with an ethos of ‘get a real job and use your brain – art and music is not the way’. Daniel chose to study engineering and joined Qantas.

Being taught painting techniques by his great uncle and father, he always painted in a fine dot style and the paintings were gifted to family, friends and charitable causes. Daniel always felt he had a responsibility to put something back into the lives and community of his people as his education had provided the opportunity for him to make his own choices in life. So in 1997 Daniel resigned from his position as an Avionics Engineer with Qantas and moved to Western Australia to begin working in Aboriginal Affairs.

Daniel spent time in Esperance and then the Pilbara, working for BHP Billiton’s Aboriginal Affairs Department. It was here that he found his ancestral realm while traversing this ancient land negotiating Native Title. He also recently worked professionally within the community on Palm Island, Queensland.

Daniel moved to the Sunshine Coast to be close to his mother after her recovery from breast cancer. He lives and works in an artistic house he built using the natural resources found on the bush property. His painting talents have been discovered and this emerging urban artist has sold works quicker than he can paint them, with many of them going to discerning overseas buyers locally and throughout Australia as well as Hong Kong, USA, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan.

Most elements of his work are intrinsically related to landscape where flora and fauna and ancient landforms provide a rich source of inspiration. His paintings show intricate mapping of a myriad of places and events in abstract form. Daniel’s care and dedication to producing fine, detailed work allows him to create only a limited number of pieces each year and he tends to work in “bursts’ with long periods of reflection between. His main influence comes from the shapes, colours and textures of the landscapes. The unique contrasting areas he has seen on his travels appear in his paintings – ranging from the stark red desert in Western Australia to the rich ocean life surrounding Palm Island. His paintings have been entered in the Telstra NT Art Award and an entry into the Winnie and Archibald Prize is a personal goal.