Bridie O'Brien. Beobe. Short for B.O.B.

I was born in Young, NSW. Sheep and wheat country. Dust storms. Eldest of six in a split and patched family. An upbringing brimming with hard lessons, adventure and self-reliance.

I went to Sydney on a music scholarship and swapped paddocks for stages.

I have pulled cables through dark venues at 3 am. Called shows from the wings. Directed live television broadcasts. Managed teams across national roadshows. Travelled solo abroad extensively. Made a record on a remote Caribbean island. 

I ride motorcycles and grow my own vegetables. I've played guitar at festivals here and overseas and written and released three studio albums. Music was never a hobby. It was oxygen. It carried me across continents and, in the end, led me back to the visual.

Art kept circling. Quiet. Patient. In 2020, when the stages went dark, I stopped pretending and chose painting fully.

Now I work in thick oil, cut in with a palette knife. I paint the places that have carved themselves into me. Headlands. Back roads. Snow country. Beaches that taste of salt. I am not chasing photographs. I am chasing the pulse beneath them.

Every landscape is lived and felt first. I stand in it. I feel the temperature shift. I notice the light, the shade. Then I paint it by hand. One of a kind. Pure oil. Clear vision.

Learn more about Bridie in The Beobe Story section.