On 11th October, 2025, local artist Stephanie Fuller, will be launching her new gallery. The gallery is upstairs at the Walmer Castle PH, 4 South Street, Deal. There will be a Private Viewing between 3 to 5 pm. I recently had the pleasure of photographing Stephanie at her gallery and interviewing her about her life and art.
It is often said that an artist's life is a diverse range of experiences, involving intense passion and a creative struggle. A challenging journey, balancing artistic and creative pursuits and more practical life commitments. It will often comprise life changing events, both joyous and sorrowful which, in one way or another, find their way into the artist’s work.
Stephanie Fuller’s personal journey, as a woman and an artist, paints such a canvas.
Stephanie was born in Perth. Her father emigrated as a child with his extended family in 1952, as Ten Pound Poms from their home in Margate. From the ages of 3-6 Stephanie’s family moved to Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt, a joint Australian-U.S. facility that operates radio transmissions for Navy submarines and allied ships. While the town of Exmouth was being built the family lived in a caravan in the desert between the Naval Base and the new town on the North-West Cape, 778 miles from Perth. Early life in a remote part of western Australia and 50 degrees of heat, with no refrigerator, would have been very hard for the family. The nearby Ningaloo coast and the Ningaloo reef is now a world heritage site. The landscape and ecology of the region were to leave a mark on Stephanie for life.
The family moved back to Perth for Stephanie’s schooling but nature and art were always an important part of her life. Stephanie’s father was an oil and minerals man and an explorer but the women in his family were in vaudeville and his grandmother and her sisters were a world renowned troupe of trapeze artists. In retirement, Stephanie’s grandparents were fine artists.
Destined for an artistic life, Stephanie came to London in 1982, aged 19, where she studied arts, French, Japanese and cordon bleu cooking. While working on her portfolio, Stephanie met and later married Peter Fuller, a British art critic, author of more than 20 books and founder and editor of the magazine Modern Painters. His best-known book is probably Art and Psychoanalysis. An archive of his works is held at the Tate Gallery. Stephanie learnt a great deal from his work and the publications, private viewings and exhibitions that they shared.
This would not have been one way traffic. Stephanie is a confident woman with a presence that commands respect. She is self-aware, unapologetically authentic and driven to make her own way in the art world. There would have been many conversations in this marriage about art, the concept of beauty and art critique where her husband learned more than a thing or two from Stephanie.
Tragically, in 1990 Stephanie, 7 1/2 months pregnant, her husband, Peter, their 3-year old son, Laurence, and their driver, were involved in a motoring accident on the M4 motorway in Berkshire. Peter was killed, Stephanie and her son were seriously injured and their unborn son didn’t survive. Stephanie was in hospital for two months.
Soon after when she was still recovering from her injuries, Stephaine met and married John McDonald, a leading Australian Art Critic, with whom she moved back to Australia to live in Sydney. John had recently lost his job as art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald a position he held on and off for nearly 40 years. He is currently founder and Editor-in-Chief of ‘Everything the artworld doesn’t want you to know’, a platform where he shares his critiques and insights on contemporary art. He also served as Head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia from 1999 to 2001.
Once again, this time on the other side of the planet, Stephanie was close to the centre of cultural life in Australia and Britian. She continued to return to England to visit her step daughter, friends in Deal and to run the Peter Fuller Memorial Foundation; a Charity she had set up. The Foundation hosted an annual lecture at the TATEs, Courtauld Institute and The Slade during the years Roy Oxlade was a Trustee. David Matthews, the British composer who lives in Deal, was one of the early lecturers and his lecture was published as a pamphlet as was Howard Jacobson’s and Robert Natkin’s, the American Colourfield painter. All three men where friends.
Stephanie’s third husband, Steve, was an economist and they lived together in Canberra where, between 2000 and 2015, Stephanie ran galleries in Canberra and Milton on the south coast and built a sculpture park on the outskirts of Yass. When Stephanie’s son, Laurence Fuller got his green card in the US, Stephanie and Steve decided to buy and renovate property near Los Angeles to spend more time with her son. The culmination of her work there was the hosting by Stephanie Burns Fine Art of a a pop up exhibition in LA, curated by Laurence Fuller, titled Elysium Verto. Stephanie’s Californian paintings and bronze still life sculptures were in the exhibition in 2018. ( https://stephaniefullergallery.com/pages/elysium-verto ).
Throughout her life Stephanie has had a passion for creative expression, producing a diverse body of work including sculptures, paintings, pastels, drawing and etchings. Her primary source of inspiration is her love of ecology and the natural world, which began in her childhood.
For over a decade she produced a large body of artworks, from small sketches to large, detailed paintings, based on her fascination with whales and other sea creatures. These works can be seen in her YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/NV7wXBsIGFU?si=ULUUlG2qNDnxaqPY
This work ties back to Stephanie’s memories of her childhood on the Ningaloo Coast and the beautiful Ningaloo Reef; her time living on the south coast watching the whales from the shore; visits to the Great Barrier Reef; and, her first whale sighting in Hawaii. Stephanie’s Whale Artworks are an insightful advocacy for marine conservation.
A selection of Stephanie’s large bronze sculptures, paintings, huge pastel collages, drawings and etchings, created over more than three decades, across several continents, went on sale earlier this year through Donelly’s Auctions in Australia. All 65 artworks sold. These works reflect her experiences as a teenager, working with geologists on mining proposals; her time as a student pilot flying over Western Australia; sketching lakes and coastlines as seen from the air; and, her residences in Canberra, Sydney Harbour, Paris and Los Angeles.
In her own words: “Each piece reflects a geography both internal and external – a personal mapping through memory, flight and terrain.”
Stephanie came to Deal in 2019. She joined SEAs (South East Artists) just before Covid and during the lockdowns spent her time painting at her home. She took over the upper floor of the Walmer Castle PH in South Street as a studio three years ago and works and teaches from there. Her most recent project has been to redecorate and refit the space as the Stephanie Fuller Gallery, showing contemporary art, sculpture and curated modern prints. Some of her Modern Master prints, including artists such as Chagall, Calder, Matisse and Tapies, not sold by auction in Australia, will soon be on display.
Approaching the end of my interview, I asked Stephanie how she hopes to be able to describe this venture a year from now. She told me that after decades of working as an artist, attending exhibitions internationally, being close to the disciplines of art criticism and art publishing, and running galleries of her own, she feels that she understands those who love looking at art and those who collect art. The sales of her works in Australia have given her the confidence and enthusiasm to make a success of her gallery in Deal.
