The West Australian Pulse 2022: Perth artists Anna Louise Richardson and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah reflect on work

There’s no grey areas in the marriage of Perth artists Anna Louise Richardson and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah.

Richardson draws with charcoal, so her studio is usually speckled with black dust.

Abdullah carves intricate sculptures out of wood, so his studio is usually covered in white sawdust.

Given their studios occupy exactly half of the same shed on Richardson’s family cattle farm in Mardella this posed a problem, so they built a wall straight down the middle to avoid mixed media.

The pair, who studied art together at Curtin University but met properly at Abdullah’s sister’s boxing gym, did not collaborate on an exhibition until Dead Things at the Bethell Gallery in Castlemaine, Victoria in 2019.

Next year the couple, who have three children under four, have an exciting project at the Art Gallery of WA — but they’re keen to stay mum on that for now.

Before then, they plan to check out this year’s The West Australian Pulse exhibition of Year 12 art students.

Both had works in the event — Abdullah in 1994, and Richardson more than a decade later in 2009.

Both confess their high school masterpieces were derivative. Abdullah painted a self-portrait in the style of Amedeo Modigliani on the back of a repurposed classroom desktop, while Richardson mimicked David Hockney for her painting of the view from the front veranda of her parents’ home.

While neither paints these days, both have very fond memories of participating.

“My goal all the way through high school was to get into Year 12 Perspectives,” Richardson said. “So it was very satisfying, very affirming.

“If the first thing you do is show at the State gallery, that’s a big deal.”

The Murdoch College graduate claimed she was “really bad” at art before her “fantastic, enthusiastic and encouraging” Year 11 teacher helped her enjoy the subject.

“It make a big difference who your teachers are,” said Richardson, who also works as a curator.

Abdullah, whose younger brother Abdul Abdullah is also an acclaimed artist and Archibald Prize finalist, said he was certain he was going to be selected to be part of the Year 12 exhibition nearly 30 years ago.

“At the time, I just assumed I was going to be in that show, with the ego of a 17-year-old boy who was into his art,” he laughed.

The highly acclaimed Malay-Australian Muslim artist and Applecross Senior High School graduate had artworks on display at AGWA as part of smaller exhibits pre-dating Year 12 Perspectives.

If the first thing you do is show at the State gallery, that’s a big deal.

Abdullah, who had a whole other career as a commercial designer and model-maker before focusing on art from 2012, said he painted his high school self-portrait on a desktop simply because it was available.

“I remember looking for something to paint on and went: ‘Hello, school desk’, so I unscrewed one of the tops and painted on that,” he said.

“It wasn’t a delightful surface but it was there, available and free.”

Since those early displays at AGWA, the top WA artist said that he has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the gallery, with one of his works in recent exhibition The View From Here.