Emerging artist set for a bright future

Emerging Bunbury artist Joshua De Gruchy was travelling around Australia armed with a paintbrush and a sunny yellow van, when he got a call to return to WA.

Joshua was being summoned by RAW Australia, a leading company that provides a platform for talented creatives to showcase their work.

His psychedelic art piece would premiere in the prestigious RAW Australia exhibition in Perth.

It was in that moment that it all started to sink in for the young emerging artist. He believed he really could make a career out of art and nothing was going to get in his way.

Looking at Joshua’s work is like gazing into an intricate maze of colour and vibrancy. Although art is subjective, it is obvious that Joshua has a way with the paintbrush and an ability to take his audience on a whimsical journey.

The 20-year-old Bunbury boy said his humble art voyage began at Dalyellup College.

I have been drawing my whole life, but I started to take it seriously in high school.

“I experimented a lot and tried to find my own unique style, I knew I wanted to do art because it felt so natural to me.”

Joshua tries to hide faces in his art although he happily invites others to find their own meaning within his paintings.

“There are hidden faces in my work, they camouflage amid the vibrant and abstract patterns,” Joshua said.

He said he never started off with a plan when painting, but instead preferred to just track his moods while embracing the multi-dimensional aspects of his personality.

Although Joshua said his family and friends were supportive of his art ambitions, he admitted there was a stigma around young people choosing art as a career.

“You have to have confidence to combat the stigma,” he said.

“Tell yourself you can do it, it is hard, but you have to do what is going to bring you happiness or else, what is the point?”

His inspiration includes American artists Alex Gray and Zio Ziegler who are renowned for their loud murals across Tokyo, Los Angeles, London and Italy.

Closer to home, Joshua also described award-winning Australian artist, Brad Eastman, as a “life-changing mentor”.

Joshua won the Platypus Discover Series in September last year, where he was flown to Bali to work under the guidance of Eastman.

“It was an intense experience and an unreal opportunity,” he said. “I did a bit of studio work with Brad and then we painted a graffiti mural which was quite a large scale piece, the biggest I’ve ever done actually.”

However, the pair have much more in common, they both have their artwork on display in Bunbury. The prominent murals at the Grand Cinemas and Bunbury Regional Art Gallery are all done by Eastman.

Joshua also has his foot in the door. His paintings will be on show in the South Western Times Art 2020 exhibition at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until April.

He has since received an opportunity to work in a studio in Fremantle but said Bunbury still had his heart.

“It’s great to have my artwork in Bunbury, there is a nostalgia around taking it back to where it all started,” he said.