Social distancing meant he couldn’t visit people in their homes to continue painting his series of pet portraits, and it also meant his day job, as a technician at the Museum of Old and New Art, was put on hold.

But rather than be disheartened by these challenges, Galloway decided to embrace the change and immerse himself in art full-time.

And it was a move that paid off – not only did he shift focus and begin experimenting with painting on copper, but he also won the prestigious Glover Prize in 2021, with his entry called View of Mt Lyell through an Acid Raindrop, taking out the highly-coveted prize, which is one of Australia’s most significant awards for landscape painting.

The unexpected win gave Galloway’s profile a boost – he now has representation in the US with his work shown regularly at overseas galleries and art fairs – but the $50,000 prize money has also given him more time to work on his art – he’s now preparing to present his first solo exhibition since winning the Glover Prize.

And rather than featuring animals, his focus is on another of nature’s wonders – flowers.

“I’m fascinated by nature and drawn to the details and the really wonderful things you find in the natural world,’’ the 34-year-old explains.

“So using flowers seemed like a straightforward and logical path for me.’’

He now spends his days collecting a various assortment of flowers – often sourced from local flower suppliers, neighbourhood gardeners or call-outs on social media – bringing them together to create the perfect arrangement.

Then, when he’s happy with the finer details of that arrangement he will photograph it for longevity. Then he ensures his copper work surface is perfectly prepared – a process that can take a number of weeks – and then he can begin to paint.

“I’ll gather flowers for days on end and make arrangements with them,’’ Galloway explains of his process.

“And I photograph them over and over and over – I take things away, I scrap entire arrangements and start a new one. I get flowers from local suppliers, I walk around parks and gardens, I do calls out on Instagram if I want something really specific … people are really happy for me to grab flowers from their garden.

“I collect flowers for days and days usually, and then I get an idea of what I want to use.’’

He says not all flowers are created equal.

“Some I absolutely love to look at, but I absolutely hate painting, because some are trickier than others,’ Galloway laughs.

“My absolute favourites to paint are magnolias, I just can’t get enough of them. They are undoubtedly my absolute favourite because of the way the light interacts with the petals, and the surface texture of the petals makes them really soft.

“To capture that is a fun and satisfying challenge. Poppies are another one I like to paint as well. It’s a really fun sort of challenge, no two are ever the same – it’s a bit like fabric that has been scrunched up and thrown on the floor, it all looks different and you have no control over it.’’

The other thing he likes about painting floral arrangements is that they have a three-dimensional quality which is amplified by the finish of the copper he paints them on. He also likes to leave areas of the copper exposed, to form part of the work, and to showcase the metal’s beauty. And Galloway says the many colours and textures of flowers, carefully arranged in a bouquet surrounded by a carefully-finished reflective copper surface, had proven to be a successful combination.

“It’s almost like reinventing my practice in a way,’’ he says, adding that there’s no need to paint a background in the way he would have in his previous works.

“I like to capitalise on the face of the copper itself, it’s quite beautiful as a surface, so I push that as far as I can to make the work as beautiful as possible,’’ he says.

Galloway’s new exhibition, Suspended in Bloom, at Hobart’s Handmark Gallery next month, will showcase his oil on copper works, in his first solo exhibition since winning the Glover Prize.

The exact number of works to be included in the show is yet to be decided, as he’s still busily finishing off his “insanely time-consuming” works.

But he says there will be at least 18 works – at least half will be smaller 18cm x 18cm and 15cm x 25cm works, as well as some larger works, with his largest creation for the exhibition measuring 105cm x 140cm.

Galloway is also considering including a life-size portrait of actor Bonnie Sveen – his first attempt at painting a portrait on copper.

He didn’t personally know the Tasmanian TV star – who is best known for her work on popular TV drama Home and Away – but approached her and she agreed to be painted.

“Bonnie is a staunch advocate for the environment and I just really like that about her,’’ Galloway says.

“A lot of things she stood for I find important as well. So I just thought what better reason to paint somebody. I wanted to do a portrait on copper. So I just sort of threw the idea out to her and she was really keen.’’

Galloway says the idea of painting on copper isn’t new – there are works dating back to the 1600s which remain in remarkable condition because copper is such a stable medium to paint on – but it’s a relatively new medium for him to work with.

He was inspired after seeing copper – which is more commonly used for etching and printmaking – in art stores. He liked the way the metal looked and decided it might be something worth experimenting with.

“I just picked some up and had a bit of a go at painting on it,’’ Galloway recalls.

“I realised the quality was quite beautiful if the surface was prepared correctly, it held a lot of potential to make some really beautiful work and explore some interesting visual ideas. So I launched into it and saw where it took me.’’

He says painting on the metal surface “is not too different from using canvas or something like that” but the surface preparation is hugely important and very time consuming.

It takes weeks to get a single piece of copper ready to be painted on, with different coatings required as part of the treatment process – which each require significant drying time as well as polishing.

This not only ensures a smooth surface to paint on, but – as Galloway leaves part of the surface exposed as a feature of the work – it also prevents oxidisation, ensuring the copper won’t tarnish.

“The preparation phase of the actual surface is very extensive,’’ Galloway says.

Which is one of the reasons he spends so much time perfecting different floral arrangements before he starts.

“If I have an idea it has to be very well resolved before I start, it’s a big commitment to go ahead after I’ve prepared the panels, and once I start (painting) I can’t really change it.’’

Learning to paint on the reflective surface has also been an interesting challenge.

“Something like canvas has quite a lot of texture which holds on to paint, in a completely different way that copper does,’’ he says.

But he says while preparing the surface and then “painstakingly” painting the detailed works required a significant amount of effort, it was worth it for the end result.

He also handcrafts his own timber frames – sometimes using salvaged or recycled timber, or using specialty timber from local timber dealers – to create frames that match the colour and detail of each of his works. Which also adds to his intensive workload, although it’s a creative pursuit he enjoys.

“I make a little less work than I would otherwise,’’ Galloway says of painting on copper.

“What I am producing is a little more time-intensive, but I’m fine that there are less of them than there would be if I was painting on something like canvas.’’

Galloway grew up in Tasmania and always had a fascination with art and nature.

“As far as I can remember, through my whole childhood, I was a person that loved art,’’ he says.

In Year 11 a teacher introduced him to oil painting and he’s been painting ever since, completing his art studies at the University of Tasmania.

“I love painting, and using oil paint in particular works really well with how I work. It gives you a lot of time to play around and just fiddle.’’

The natural world has long been a focus of his work.

“Ever since being a kid, I was obsessed with animals. and I still am to be perfectly honest with you,’’ Galloway says.

“And I just loved being out in nature.”

He says plants and animals were an obvious subject matter for his art.

“Part of who I am is to look at things a bit closer, I’m fascinated by the natural world,’’ Galloway says.

“And that plays a massive part in how I paint.

“Everything is closely scrutinised and painted in great detail, it’s not something I do as a conscious thing, it’s just something I do as a person – I love looking closely and finding the details.’’

“It’s a painstaking way of working, realistically and detailed, but it’s also what feels most natural to me, to look closely and represent things I’m fascinated by in my work. Art is communication, it’s communicating ideas to people around you. And I love presenting things in detail.’’

He moved to the Huon Valley this year, buying a house in Geeveston where the bird-lover keeps a flock of chickens.

He creates art from a home studio and says he feels lucky living in such a beautiful place, as there are very few reasons to leave.

But of course, he will make an exception for his upcoming exhibition.

He’s excited to see what audiences think of his works on copper.

Galloway has shown off photos and videos of some of his new works on Instagram, and has included a few of his copper works in group shows. But most of those shows have been interstate or overseas, where he hasn’t personally been there to witness their reactions. So he’s looking forward to getting some feedback at his Hobart exhibition, as he says the works look even more amazing in person.

“It has been really positive so far,’’ he says of the reaction to his newer style of work.

“I’ve only been at one exhibition where I’ve been able to see people’s reactions in person. It’s really cool, I actually got to see how people were interacting with the work in person, and to see their reaction to the interesting effect of the copper, and get up close and see the details.’’

He won the $2000 Guy Warren Emerging Artist Award in last year’s Mosman Art Prize and he’s also represented by a New York-based gallery, with work showing recently at art fairs in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Galloway has always entered art prizes for the experience, with his aim to be selected as a finalist and have his work showcased alongside some of Australia’s most talented artists. He says he never expected to win an art prize, and certainly not the Glover Prize.

“I definitely wasn’t (expecting to win) – I don’t think anyone can ever anticipate a moment like that,’’ he says.

“I enter prizes with the high hope of being selected to be in the exhibition, it’s an awesome thing to have your work shown in exhibitions with other artists, and obviously have your work on show to a lot of people. So just being selected as a finalist makes me really, really happy, a win is not something I ever consider as a possibility. I was in it (the Glover exhibition) and I thought ‘that goal has been achieved now’, so (to win) was completely unexpected and really an amazing experience.’’

The $50,000 prize money was also a welcome boost.

“Anything that will give you a bit of extra time to sit there and forge your path in the art-making world is the most valuable thing you can possibly get,’’ he says.

“Something that gives you time to do what you want to do.’’

Galloway says he was happy working at Mona and making art in his spare time.

But he’s thankful that the pandemic prompted him to reassess his path and concentrate solely on his art.

“I’m one of those Covid stories, I guess,’’ Galloway says.

“I’d always been an artist, but because I was also working I’d never put as much time into my art (as I wanted to).’’

“Then Covid came around, and I’m another example of those stories, someone whose life changed in a positive way. I knew Mona was closing down for a little while, so I decided I needed to paint and make sure that’s what I was going to be doing from now on. It was the push that I needed. It was always the dream of mine to throw myself into my art. Apparently I needed a global pandemic to push myself to do it.’’•

See Sebastian Galloway’s new exhibition, Suspended in Bloom, at Hobart’s Handmark Gallery from December 15 to January 1.