Welcome to the Carmen Delprat Art Blog: Featuring work in progress.

FROM NEWCASTLE TO THE INNER WORLD: A SURREALIST’S JOURNEY THROUGH LIGHT, MEMORY & MYTH

By Carmen Delprat

Welcome, art lovers.

For as long as I can remember, art hasn’t been something I do — it’s the way I understand the world. A language made of colour, emotion, memory and myth.

A way of seeing beneath the surface and piecing together the quiet truths that often go unnoticed in the rush of daily life.

My sister Carmel and I, making the most of what was available.

Growing up in a vividly creative family, imagination was not just encouraged — it was the backbone of our world. My childhood was filled with sawdust and soundboards as my father, Carl Delprat, built harpsichords entirely by hand. Later he would write sixteen novels, each one an act of tunnel-vision devotion and belief in craft.

Music echoed through our home; I played piano and alto saxophone, performing in local bands, endlessly orbiting rhythm and story.

Those early years taught me something essential: with intention and patience, the inner world can be made real.

That lesson never left me.

The First Sparks of a Surrealism

My love for art began the way most obsessions do — quietly.

A sketchbook here, a moment of wonder there.

But even as a child, I felt pulled toward the unusual: forms that blurred reality, landscapes that held secrets, symbols that felt both ancient and intimate.

After high school, I followed that pull all the way to the University of Newcastle, where I immersed myself in fine art.

Little did I know that a small moment — babysitting a friend’s kitten in Sydney — would shift the course of my career entirely.

That tiny twist of fate led me to A Couple of Cowboys, a production and promotion company where I illustrated more than 1,000 images for the award-winning video board game Atmosfear.

It was wild, surreal, fast-paced work — and it landed me in England, sharpening my skills and deepening my belief that ideas only become powerful when they’re brought to life with courage and discipline.

This was my first initiation into the world of real, thriving creativity. It taught me the difference between inspiration and execution —and that the true magic happens when you commit to your vision wholeheartedly.

Where Teaching Meets Art

I returned to Newcastle, completed my Master of Fine Art and — guided by family practicality — stepped into teaching.

What I didn’t expect was how deeply I would value it.

Teaching has its highs and lows, of course. Its emotional intensity. Its administrative weight. But it also became the place where I witnessed the transformation that happens when someone reconnects with their creativity.

That fuelled me.

Balanced me.

Inspired me.

And yet, even with a full teaching career, I painted. At night. On weekends.

Whenever the world quieted.

Art became my sanctuary — the place where emotion found form and my imagination returned home.

The Moment Everything Shifted

Despite creating consistently for years, it wasn’t until 2019 that I decided to take myself seriously as an artist.

I built my website.

I launched my art scarves.

I refined my surrealist voice.

I stopped waiting for the “right moment” and started trusting the one that was already here.

Since then, my work has become a merging of everything I’ve lived:

✨ the sea — a symbol of emotional depth and personal mythology.

✨ shells — fragments of memory, protection, truth.

✨ surreal skyworlds — the space between waking and dreaming.

✨ symbolic figures — the inner self revealed.

✨ oil glazing — the slow alchemy of light and time.

Each piece begins as an intuitive spark and evolves into something layered, deliberate and alive. My process is a conversation between form and feeling — between what I know and what the painting wants to become.

My Artistic Philosophy

I create art with intention.

Not to decorate a wall —but to open a space.

A pause. A breath.

A moment where something inside softens, remembers or awakens.

We live in a world hungry for meaning.

For beauty.

For stillness.

For the permission to feel.

My paintings are created for the people who sense this.

Who feel the pull toward the symbolic, the surreal, the dreamlike.

Who want art that doesn’t just sit in a room, but shifts the atmosphere of their life.

Technique: Where Patience Meets the Unseen

My technique is shaped by years of study, experimentation and lived curiosity.

I work predominantly in oils, layering glazes slowly to create luminosity —the kind of depth that feels like it’s glowing from within.

Surrealism allows me to merge the real and imagined. Symbolism allows me to say what words can’t. Light allows me to guide emotion. Colour allows me to tune the frequency of a moment.

It’s an intuitive process —but also incredibly precise.

I let the painting reveal itself in its own time.

Why I Share the Journey

Many artists prefer to show only the final piece. I’m not one of them.

I love inviting people behind the scenes —into the sketches, the experiments, the accidental breakthroughs, the discoveries that make a work truly alive.

I believe art isn’t a secret to be guarded. It’s a journey to be shared.

Creativity expands when it’s witnessed.

Art as Companion

At its heart, my work is for people who want to live with art —not just look at it.

For dreamers, emotional feelers, quiet visionaries and lovers of beauty.

For those who want their home to feel like a sanctuary.

For those who see beyond the surface.

Art becomes part of your daily rhythm —something that shifts with the light, meets you where you are and whispers something new each time you look.

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Thank You for Being Here

I’m grateful you’ve stepped into my world.

If you’d like to continue exploring, you’re welcome to:

✨ Visit the full art collection

✨ Become a VIP member (10% off your first purchase + early access to releases)

✨ Follow along behind the scenes as new surreal worlds unfold.

Thank you for being part of this journey —one brushstroke, one moment, one story at a time.

Art. Emotion. Lumina.

Live with art. Feel it. Let it guide your moments.