Absurd and crude paintings about things that interest me in my orbit.

Abigail Crompton
b. Melbourne, Australia

Abigail Crompton’s painting practice is grounded in narrative, emotion, and the interplay between personal history and collective memory. After initially studying corporate psychology, Crompton turned decisively toward art, bringing with her an enduring interest in human behaviour and expression. With over two decades of experience in the commercial art world—most notably as the founder of Third Drawer Down—she now centres her studio practice on painting as a space of introspection and emotional release.

Drawing inspiration from artists such as Rose Wylie and Louise Bourgeois, Crompton’s work often emerges from life’s more intimate ruptures: heartbreak, longing, obsession, and loss. Her so-called “breakup paintings” translate private experiences into vividly coloured compositions that oscillate between fantasy and confession. Pop music—particularly its emotionally candid edge—serves as a vital source material, with song lyrics frequently informing both the mood and titles of individual works.

Crompton primarily paints in oil and pencil on canvas board or linen panel, favouring small formats and an informal, desk-based approach. Her visual language rejects technical perfection in favour of expression and immediacy: skewed perspectives, disproportionate figures, and deliberately rough textures create a dreamlike, psychologically charged atmosphere. The surfaces are often interrupted by areas of raw linen or impasto, adding a tactile quality that keeps the work grounded in the physical act of painting.

Recurring motifs—both textual and symbolic—thread her works together, creating a cohesive lexicon shaped as much by internet image searches and fragments of pop culture as by lived experience. In this way, Crompton’s paintings operate as both personal archive and cultural reflection, mapping the emotional terrain of contemporary life through a lens that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant.