About PJ Wray

PJ Wray, also known as Josephine, Josey, Painting Josephine, Mum, or Jose, is an Australian contemporary visual artist working across painting and drawing.

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Through the figure, Josephine explores the shifting territories of motherhood, identity, sensuality and memory, alongside the mundane rituals of everyday life. Her work moves between what is happening in front of her and what exists internally — memories that surface unexpectedly, identities that overlap, and ordinary moments that take on a significance of their own.

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Experimentation and play are central to Josephine's practice. She uses unconventional materials and objects drawn from domestic life to make marks, allowing the circumstances of everyday living to become physically embedded in the work.

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Beetroot has become a recurring material and motif within her practice. The experimentation began after watching her young son encounter beetroot purée for the first time — tasting it, touching it and spreading its vivid colour across himself and his surroundings. What began as an observation of play became a material investigation into stain, impermanence and memory.

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Josephine's work moves between abstraction and figuration, painting from the feeling of a memory rather than trying to recreate it exactly. Figures, faces and flowers appear throughout her work, sometimes clearly and sometimes only suggested through layers of colour and expressive marks. Memories are treated in much the same way — fragmented, softened and altered over time, leaving behind a feeling that can be difficult to place.

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