Kim Bolitho is a contemporary Australian artist whose practice explores light, space, and the spiritual dimensions of perception. Rooted in Zen philosophy, her luminous oil paintings create layered fields of colour in which halos and orbs emerge as metaphors for divine presence, cosmic origin, and human transcendence. Only recently did Bolitho discover the 1960s Light and Space Movement — and the parallels were striking. Arriving at a shared visual language independently, across decades and continents, she found herself part of a family she never knew existed.

At the heart of her current work is Father Sky (2026) — the latest painting in her ongoing Halos series. Deep, expansive, and quietly powerful, it radiates a protecting calm: a dark centre held within rings of luminous teal, like something ancient and breathing. It is at once cosmic and intimate, vast and still. Together with Mother Earth (2008), it completes an elemental pairing — earth and sky, rooted and boundless, the seen and the eternal. For Bolitho, the Halos series has always been a lifelong meditation on life, creation, and the universe — on the things we feel but cannot always name.

Bolitho's practice spans four decades of international exhibition. She exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum consecutively from 1986 to 1992, and lived and worked in Tokyo for nine years — a period that profoundly shaped her fusion of Eastern and Western perceptual traditions. Her work has been exhibited at the United Nations in Switzerland, at Gran Casino Nervion in Bilbao — where it entered the permanent collection — and most recently at Art 3f Paris, Art 3f Monaco, and ArtExpo New York 2026, where Father Sky is presented by Mecenavie gallery at Pier 36.

Bolitho appeared as the featured artist in the award-winning Painting with Light television commercial for Pacific Power, Agency Saatchi & Saatchi, filmed by cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. — a campaign that earned four international accolades including the New York One Show, the Australian Television Awards, and shortlisting at both Cannes and the London International Advertising Awards. She is a recipient of the 2025 Regional Arts Australia Government Grant.

Working with wax-satin textured surfaces that marry material depth with sublime glow, Bolitho creates paintings that function as portals — bridging memory and eternity, presence and transcendence. Her work is held in private collections nationally and internationally.

Painting with Light.

Photo: Simon Harsent.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi for Pacific Power

View the video of TVC ‘Painting with Light’ here.

Director of Photography: Peter Menzies jr.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi for Pacific Power