Sophie Pulvers

Sophie was born in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in both Tokyo and Kyoto with her two sisters, also artists, and her older brother. She was educated in Japanese schools until she moved to Sydney in 2001 and is bilingual in Japanese and English. She continues to be a frequent visitor to Japan and recently visited Tokyo to open a three sisters exhibition at the Kobo Chika Gallery. Sophie has always been fascinated by the natural world and this is reflected in her work, in which she most often paints animal subjects. Her work reflects the experiences of her childhood growing up surrounded by both traditional and contemporary Japanese art. Much of Japanese cultural and artistic inspiration is drawn from the natural world and natural materials. Sophie has travelled overseas as well as in many parts of Australia. She studied environmental science at the University of NSW. Some of the extraordinary places where she was fortunate enough to visit and experience wild nature include tropical far-north Queensland, the Corner Country of far-western New South Wales and Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. Sophie exhibits regularly and has been a semi-finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize, Hunters Hill Art Prize and the Waverly 9x5 Landscape Prize. As well as painting animal subjects from life, Sophie has reinterpreted the animal subject etchings and paintings of the 15th/16th-century German artist Albrecht Dürer. She has also created a series of large works inspired by renowned Japanese artists such as Ito Jakuchu, Maruyama Okyo and artists of the Kano School. In 2025, Sophie was commissioned by a Sydney school to create a large mural of a corroboree frog in its alpine environment.