Collection: Sophie Gralton

Sophie Gralton is a Sydney-based contemporary painter whose practice explores memory, childhood, identity and the emotional weight of lived experience. Working primarily in figurative painting, Gralton creates intimate, psychologically rich works that often draw on personal narratives, family histories and the universal language of human vulnerability. Her subjects frequently inhabit quiet, reflective moments, inviting viewers into a space that feels both deeply personal and collectively familiar.

Gralton’s work is characterised by a delicate balance between realism and emotional abstraction. Her figures, often children or solitary protagonists, are rendered with sensitivity and restraint, allowing gesture, posture and atmosphere to carry much of the emotional narrative. There is a cinematic quality to her compositions — moments that feel paused in time — where memory, nostalgia and reflection intersect. Recurring themes of innocence, resilience, and the passage of time underpin her practice, giving her work a quietly powerful emotional resonance.

She completed formal training at the National Art School, Sydney, majoring in Painting, after earlier studies in printmaking and fashion/textile design at Sydney College of the Arts. This multidisciplinary background informs her painterly approach, evident in her nuanced handling of surface, pattern and composition. Alongside painting, Gralton has maintained an ongoing engagement with printmaking, including international residencies in Greece with master printmaker Basil Hall.