PREVIEW: Salvatore Zofrea | Seven Days of Summer

For nearly seventy years Salvatore Zofrea has investigated the foundations of drawing, printmaking and painting, understanding the fundamentals of each medium to push the potential of representation. In his latest work, a new chord has been struck in which he embraces the intersection of colour and music to articulate his connection with nature. The result is a symphony of heightened emotion, expressed through colour and form that celebrates transcendent beauty and spirituality within the Australian landscape.

Salvatore Zofrea, Midday Waterfall Among Flowers, 2024, oil, lapis lazuli, canvas, 150 x 193 cm. Photographed by Effy Alexakis

As an Italian immigrant, who came to Australia as a young boy, Zofrea’s understanding and connection with the Australian landscape has been a lifelong journey. His paintings, drawings and prints chart the artist’s time spent in the bush between his home and studio in the Blue Mountains, and his studio in Seaforth, Sydney.

Known for his figurative compositions, in his recently completed book of drawings and his new monotypes and paintings Zofrea’s examination of colour and music draws the artist closer to abstraction. Across these different mediums, the artist responds to how music can inform his use of colour and evoke his experience of spirituality within nature.

Music has always surrounded Salvatore’s practice. When he is working in his studio, he listens to the music of composers, including Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. Aligned with his practice, these relations between sound and colour express the beauty of nature.

The large book of drawings, which has taken over five years to complete, is one metre by one metre. Like most of Zofrea’s work, the book was an epic undertaking in which he immersed himself in the medium; in particular, to negotiate the challenge of scale. The time spent drawing reveals a series of studies of the landscape varying from figuration to pure abstraction. The act of drawing serves as a starting point for the artist to thresh out his studies and observations across the large sheets of paper.

Salvatore Zofrea, with his book Australian Flora and Fauna, 2021-25, pen, pencil, watercolour; handmade French paper (40 images on 20 leaves), 100 x 100 cm. Photographed by Effy Alexakis

Working on the thick, rough handmade paper, his ink, pencil and watercolour drawings vary in detail and intensity as the ink is drawn and pushed across the undulating surfaces. From a quick sketch of a lyrebird musing through the bush, to studies of native flora, or a detailed ink and wash study of the view from his garden in Kurrajong, the book not only charts his movements through the landscape but also his emotions and connection to it.

The influence of music reveals itself in musical chords scattered in ink throughout the pages, where Zofrea has begun to play with the relationship between music and colour. And, as the book develops, the studies of nature give way to abstraction as colour crescendos with vibrant oranges and yellows to articulate this heightened state. This play between music and colour in his drawings is later expanded upon in his paintings and monotypes, where Zofrea’s landscapes crescendo with abstract colour.

From his drawings to monotypes, Zofrea’s line and compositions change with the elasticity and smoothness of the paint on the smooth plate. The one-off prints have an immediacy whereby detail is forgone, and colour takes the lead as Zofrea plays with compositions of flowers and light. Seven Days of Summer, 2025, is a bright, colourful study of flowers in the garden. The generous thick brush marks hint at form, as the flowers and plants are layered upon each other vertically to become rhythmic in their display of the garden. The result is a fresh, immediate composition that is not overworked. The monotypes are a distinct departure from the expressionist woodcut series that charted his family’s immigration from Italy to Australia, yet they still carry the bold intensity that Zofrea is celebrated for.

Salvatore Zofrea, Reflection of water in High Noon, 2024, oil on canvas,194 x 600 cm (triptych). Photographed by Effy Alexakis

The progression from drawings to the freeing-quality of monotypes has enabled Zofrea to build momentum in expressing colour and emotion in his recent paintings of the seasons. Reflection of Water in High Noon, 2024, is an epic celebration of late summer with colour, emotion and light. Distinct forms of the landscape have dissolved to become a symphony of reds, yellows, blues and greens. Colour, heat and music are entwined in this ephemeral scene. The musical chords that appeared in his drawings are repeated as strokes on the canvas until they become abstract gestures, building depth and rhythm. Zofrea has integrated form, music and colour to evoke a pulsating sensation of the late afternoon. Traversing along the six-metre canvas we are immersed in the fullness of the heat and light of the late afternoon—the artist’s joy!

Over his long career, Zofrea has continued to push the boundaries of representation to express his connection to the Australian landscape. This latest series of work is a celebration of his communion with nature.

EXHIBITION
Salvatore Zofrea | Seven Days of Summer
7–25 October 2025
Australian Galleries, Sydney

Images courtesy of the artist, Australian Galleries, Sydney and Effy Alexakis

Lucy Stranger is the Deputy Editor of Artist Profile

This article was first published in Artist Profile Issue 72