Wendy Riley wins people’s choice award at University of Sydney’s Dreams and Debuts Amateur Art Competition

The moment Wendy Riley, who lives with an acquired brain injury, held a paintbrush, a blank canvas was transformed into a burst of vibrant colour – and now she’s won an award proving her artistic spark. Read her inspiring story.

Wendy Riley has taken home the people's choice award at the University of Sydney’s "Dreams and Debuts" Amateur Art Competition.

The moment Wendy held a paintbrush, a blank canvas was transformed into a burst of vibrant colour after her support worker recognised her artistic spark during a weekly physiotherapy session.

Wendy Riley, from Sefton, lives with an acquired brain injury where she had a sizeable portion of her brain removed - but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming an award-winning artist.

The 67-year-old took home the people’s choice award for the University of Sydney’s Dreams and Debuts amateur art competition for artists with disability last week.

Miss Riley said she felt “happy”, “beautiful” and “lovely” after taking home the prize and her support worker Nick Nicola said he had never seen her so happy.

Wendy Riley has taken home the people's choice award at the University of Sydney’s "Dreams and Debuts" Amateur Art Competition.

“When Wendy was told the news, her family said it was the happiest they’d ever seen her apart from her son’s wedding,” he said.

The mother-of-three submitted four acrylic paintings named “Dreaming” and said she was an “art lover” after she worked on her pieces across 10 days for more than 27 hours.

Mr Nicola, who has worked with Ms Riley for over a year, wanted to find some fun activities to do that encouraged her to use her standing frame to stretch out her non-functioning limbs.

“Instead of her being inactive in the standing frame, we thought why didn’t she stand up and do her artwork so it gave her a distraction while she was also doing her physio,” he said.

“She would work on one piece then we would move her along and we would rotate the canvas so she could work on her paintings.”

Mr Nicola said her artwork “reflects who she is as a person” and proved her disability didn’t define her.

“Wendy’s artwork is terrific and acquiring the brain injury hasn’t beaten her as she’s still gracious and kind and she’s never angry or bitter and you can see that in her paintings,” he said.

Wendy with her son James (right) and daughter SImone (left) at the exhibition.

“The way she paints is exactly her … it’s steady, you’re not in a hurry and the brushstrokes are relaxing.”

Mr Nicola said he would put music on in the background – including John Farman, love songs and instrumental tracks – as she painted for hours.

“When Wendy does her artwork she goes into a zone, she loses herself to the artwork,” he said.

“The way it looks for me, is when a professional athlete goes into the zone, that’s her with a paintbrush.”

Miss Riley’s son James, said his mother’s art was inspired by her family and her style is abstract “which is how she expresses emotions without words”.

“She has a vocabulary of around 200 words. There just aren’t enough words to express how she is feeling so art helps her to connect with how she feels, in a way that words simply can’t,” he said.