Fine Art  ·  Oil on Canvas  ·  Australia

Carol D'Arcy

Contemporary oil paintings exploring feminine memory, emotional atmosphere, and quiet psychological intensity.

Paintings completed only when the work carries the artist within it — through signature brushwork and a language of light developed over a lifetime. Works held in private collections nationally and internationally.

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Collected Works
Carol D'Arcy, Australian fine art oil painter, at work in her studio at the easel — Queensland, Australia
In the studio
© Carol D'Arcy
The Artist

A Student of Light & Form

Carol D'Arcy has spent her adult life in two studios. One smells of linseed oil and turpentine. The other holds two chairs — one of them sometimes empty. In both rooms, the same thing is happening: someone is trying to see clearly, and to make something true from what they find.

To understand the self in relation and to be in awareness of now. To notice. To be and to understand.

She has been a fine art oil painter for most of her life, working in the tradition of the Old Masters and the Impressionists — painters who understood that light is never just light, and that what we see on the surface is never the whole story. Her work is held in private collections in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Since 1995, Carol has co-directed the Gold Coast Gestalt Centre with her husband Joe D'Arcy, providing psychotherapy and counselling to individuals, couples and families. She is a Clinical Member of GANZ and holds qualifications as a Registered Nurse.

In 2016, Carol produced and animated Je Suis Un Crayon (I Am A Pencil) — written and directed by Joe D'Arcy of Joe D'Arcy Films — longlisted for an Academy Award and selected for Whoopi Goldberg's personally curated animated shorts program at the Tribeca Film Festival. It screened at festivals across four continents.

She and Joe have two children. Their son Byron is a filmmaker. Their daughter Jazz D'Arcy is a composer whose credits include Bluey — she began scoring the series before its first episode aired — and numerous film and television projects since.

All my roles are intimate, disciplined, loving, beautiful, committed. All are marked by a deep desire to support beauty, and goodness. Likewise, these are the guiding forces inherent in each painting.

Carol D'Arcy
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Available Works

Each painting is a unique, signed original. No prints are produced. Works may be purchased directly or by private enquiry — both options are available on each listing.

All prices in Australian Dollars (AUD) · Secure payment via Stripe or PayPal · Certificate of authenticity with every work

Icecream Castles in the Sky — original oil painting on canvas by Carol D'Arcy. 91×61cm. For sale $1,800 AUD. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Landscape · Seascape
Icecream Castles in the Sky
Oil on Canvas · 91×61cm

There is a particular kind of light that arrives without warning, just before evening — uncertain, unrepeatable, and gone almost before you can name it.

Joe and I were walking our favourite stretch of the Sunshine Coast. I was tired. I was quietly grieving. My mother had not long passed. Suddenly the light changed, as though a drum beat had heralded the sunset. I ran to catch the view. When those colossal clouds lit up in all their glory, they took my breath away.

I heard my mother — deep within, and all the way out there. See how beautiful I am. This painting is for her — and for everyone who has ever looked up at the sky and felt something they couldn't quite name.

$1,800AUD · Unframed
My Garden in the Afternoon — original oil painting on canvas by Carol D'Arcy. 30.5×25.5cm. For sale $490 AUD. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Landscape · En Plein Air
My Garden in the Afternoon
Oil on Canvas · 30.5×25.5cm

I just wanted to paint directly, en plein air. Sometimes beauty is right under your nose.

$490AUD · Unframed
Four Crows, Two Sirens, and Pools of Pure Magic — original oil painting on canvas by Carol D'Arcy. 76×36cm. For sale $1,320 AUD. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Landscape · Seascape
Four Crows, Two Sirens, and Pools of Pure Magic
Oil on Canvas · 76×36cm

Have you ever spent time on an old headland and become enchanted? On this warm day at Woody Head, the whales had jumped for ages close to the shores, sea eagles soared overhead, the rocks crinkled and crackled in the heat, showing eons of life now turned to stone. The rock pools sparkled, filled with multi-coloured seaweeds, anemone, crabs and fast darting fish. The crows pierced the ambience with their solemn call, and I was transported into a timeless reverie.

Read the poem — Old Bone Woman

$1,320AUD · Unframed
Golden Light — original oil painting on canvas by Carol D'Arcy. En plein air. 51×51cm. For sale $880 AUD. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Landscape · En Plein Air
Golden Light
Oil on Canvas · 51×51cm

Painted en plein air in Bonogin Valley, Queensland — it was just around the corner, all that time! I'd visited a friend and, driving home, I was struck by the marvellous golden light in the bush and fields. The following week I returned and created this. The friend I had visited spotted me, parked their car, and stopped to chat in the field. This was fun.

$880AUD · Unframed
The Secret Keeper — original oil painting on canvas by Carol D'Arcy. 20×20cm. For sale $300 AUD. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Still Life
The Secret Keeper
Oil on Canvas · 20×20cm

I hold secrets. People trust me with them. I hold them solid and beautifully — so people can speak, explore, feel safe, and resolve. Sometimes forgive. Sometimes accept. Sometimes understand why, and how the secret belongs to them. I know that when they are ready, they will let them go. Even so, I keep the secrets.

$300AUD · Unframed
Where She Holds the Knowledge — original oil painting on board by Carol D'Arcy. Impasto. 28×35.5cm. For sale $720 AUD. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Landscape · Impasto
Where She Holds the Knowledge
Oil on Board · Impasto · 28×35.5cm

Haven't you ever passed an old house and felt it? Imagined the lives lived, and wondered? This was started en plein air but finished in the studio. The process morphed and played into the crossroad, the tall trees, the woman who lived there, and how they all related.

I was intrigued by the story. The painting itself seemed to dictate it, yet it came from my hand and heart. I love the woman who lives there — the psyche, the soul, eternally beautiful.

$720AUD · Unframed
Woman. Unveiled and Present — original oil painting on canvas by Carol D'Arcy. Impasto. 50×40cm. For sale $1,500 AUD. Framed. © Carol D'Arcy.
Available
© Carol D'Arcy
Figurative · Portraiture
Woman. Unveiled and Present.
Oil on Canvas · Impasto · 50×40cm · Framed

We hide. Women hide. We cover up — not just the body, but the true self. We have had eons of training. Men too. But a woman may be blamed for all of it: dressing "wrongly," looking "wrongly," thinking "wrongly," for claiming ownership of her own body.

This painting refuses that. It plays with open directness — unguarded contact, direct body and eye. She is simply a woman, present. That's it. And in much of the world, that alone is still treated as provocation.

Femicide and rape remain pervasive. Dedicated to the women, and the men, who know this is wrong.

$1,500AUD · Framed
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