"An unwound mind, daydreaming while driving out of Cowra toward Woodstock.
New chapters beginning, and old ones ending.
Mum's bright new life in the country bringing with it new sights, and never before seen landscapes.
The sun setting on a stormy afternoon, quietly flying past as the light shifts, and the atmosphere changes to a new level of calm.
A moment where the embrace of the land soothed any doubts that may have been lingering about
life changing and shifting through the eras."
"The "Howling Wolf Lake" painting began as an ink sketch I roughed out during a wilderness canoe trip in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Here's a bit of the back-story.
I'm camped for the evening, focused on preparing my supper meal. A howling wail across the lake catches my attention - wolves! That howl is saying, "We know you're there; can smell your campfire"...
I recently discovered the ink sketch tucked in a book. I selected a colour scheme I felt would depict the mid-afternoon light on the rocks and surrounding woodland. Acrylic paint was my medium of choice, built up in thin layers of colour over colour."
“I grew up near Ungarie on a sheep and wheat farm called “Belleforest”. I regularly return to see my family and produce paintings on the property (en plein air), endeavouring to document farm life as I know it. This painting was produced on a clear spring day in September. Pictured is a crop of wheat. The treeline in the distance marks the property’s boundary on the northern side. This paddock has produced canola, barley and oats. There is an air strip along the eastern fenceline. It is also the view from the main house where I grew up.”
“This view reminded me of the contrast between relationships. Relief and contrast, manipulation of scale, all speak to the sameness and difference in both the human and natural worlds.
The tension inherent in the work holds the viewer just longer enough to allow the mind to ponder whilst the chroma choice and boldness of the foreground provides an entry point from which to consider your perspective.
The expressionist style is less about location and more about an evocation of relationships.”
“The painting represents the Australian landscape as viewed from my window and speaks to ideas of 'home'. As a child I learned textile skills by watching my mother at her sewing machine. Later, I sat by the Barwon with Elders and learned ancient weaving practices. Home is divided between two places - one is Dharawal Country where I am a guest, the other is my Grandmother's ancestral home on Ngemba and Muruwarri Country. Home comes together; the ever-present Flying Foxes that inhabit the gums below Mt Keira and the suburban backyard are connected to my cultural ways of making and weaving.”
"I could see the storm brewing in the distance. The deep blue water churned around the rocks and the wind whipped around me. Should I keep going or turn back I asked myself?"
Whilst walking in and painting the landscape Rachel Rae pauses time to think about the rhythm of life, and like the water churning, the way we ruminate over decisions. But after every storm there is sunshine. So even if you decide to head straight into the storm, you will grow and learn from the experience and your sun will shine brighter.”
“Winter 2021, my wife and I on a trip through SW Qld. Covid had closed the borders so you could travel all day hardly seeing a soul. The country is arid, hard, beautiful. Vehicle tracks are ubiquitous. I started thinking of 4WDs in TV commercials as modern-day Ned Kellys roaming the landscape, as hard, dangerous and inscrutable as Sidney Nolan's outlaw. This painting's title, 'Be what you wanna be', comes from one of these ads. It's part of a series called 'The Enormous Vastness', borrowing a line from Kev Carmody's 'Droving Woman'. The landscape is hard country north of Birdsville.”
“I once heard it said that rocks speak, but very slowly: it takes a million years for them to say a word.
I am drawn to this scene on the one hand by the intense energy of the angular shattered outcrop – as though it had just burst out of the ground – and on the other by the sublime repose of the river bed where changes are measured in millennia.”
“Based in Brisbane, Kate Marek is primarily a landscape painter who is constantly inspired by the natural beauty of this country and its flora. Her interest lies in colour: its painterly application and its evocative power. “Smoky Cape” was painted en plein air on Kate’s recent travels along Australia’s Eastern coast.
Kate has been a practicing artist for the past 20 years and has won numerous awards. Her work is held in private collections worldwide. “Colourscape”, her first solo exhibition, is currently showing at Wild Canary in Brisbane.”
“I moved to Goulburn in 2021, to the lands of the Njunawal and Gundungurra people, all masked up & socially-distanced. The forests of eucalypts, gorges and waterfalls breathed a deep welcome and I was inspired to revisit my love for landscape painting. The woodlands here bare evidence of fires, floods, droughts, rainstorms and suburban development. Roos and wallabies live amongst snow-gums and scribblys. Tiny bugs zig-zag trails up tree trunks; as seasons change, bark peels to reveal new colours. Birdsong everywhere. And silence.
Meanwhile, a Cortina shimmers like an installation, immersed mid forest, not going anywhere soon.”
“This landscape was first conceived in the flicking light between sleep and awake as my work is primarily concerned with exploring ambiguous narratives.
Using acrylic paint and oil stick to create a conversation between repeated forms and structures, the work was highly process driven as I was interested in the interplay between colours and marks.
My practice involves investigative mark making and exploring a dissonance within colour theory. Although this landscape is imagined it feels both familiar and strange at the same time.”
“Great happiness and contentment can be found in the simple observation of Australian landscapes. Through painting, I endeavour to communicate those aspects of the landscape that I find particularly aesthetically pleasing. In this work, it is the motif of the eucalyptus tree branches, the shadows formed within the clefts of the rocky cliff, and the contrast of the foliage against the bright daytime sky. My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the landscape around them, to discover the extraordinary beauty that this continent offers us.”
"Erudgere Lane runs in the base of the valley and just below the foreground in this painting. I have been looking at and painting these hills for 20 years or so. There are so many different colours and light in familiar landscapes like this one. The morning light in this painting was breaking through early cloud and mist. I have attempted to paint this scene expressively in colour and quite quickly so that both the brushstrokes and colour replicate the transience of the light. I still paint these same hills but have not seen a similar light since".
"Victoria Park Greens is a celebration of Brisbane's urban and natural beauty. The painting captures the serene landscape of the golf course, with the city's high-rises blending seamlessly into the blue sky, creating a harmonious balance between urban and natural landscapes.
I sought to convey the sense of escape and tranquility that one can experience in this gem of a park. Through this painting, I hope to transport viewers to this idyllic oasis and inspire them to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.”
“Here east of Katherine NT is where the water flows. It brings life, a constant force that carves its way through rock and feeds this place with its liquid element. During the dry season it is a serene calm unassuming flow in which we paddle. When it wakes in the wet heat of summer it becomes a force that renews this landscape. It burns, it drinks, it flourishes in green renewal. The cycle starts over.”
“Having grown up in Melbourne's inner-city, I have long been inspired by it's streets and architecture. The buildings have formed such a fundamental part of my upbringing, and have shaped my view of life the city.
Increasingly I use this architecture to explore the idea of the alienation of life within a large city. My work explores the juxtaposition between the close proximity in which we live, and the distance and sense of isolation which so often comes along with that life.”
“This work is an expression of what I find beautiful in my world, inspiration is seeded in my observations and interactions in nature. Drawn to expansive skies, the subtraction of colour is a quiet contemplation of the beauty of sky lights and signs of life in rooftops and powerlines. My approach to painting is photorealistic so as to understand what makes the landscape so emotive and interesting.”
“I am interested in perception and my work hinges on the idea that paintings require a temporality of engagement which contrasts with the fleeting, screen-based images that dominate much of our daily experience. Working mainly in landscapes I explore atmospheric conditions and the ambiguities of vision that cannot be translated through simple iPhone snapshots.
The painting "Almost There" is about when you've been driving in the country and you know you've almost reached your destination because the bitumen stops and it becomes a dirt road.”
“Inspired by the Thomas poem, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’, Havoc is a response to our society and its dying relationship with nature. I have realised over the last few years that I contain significantly more fight than freeze or flight. My kinship with the ocean runs deep and her relentless tide and reflections of light strengthen my ideologies. As I enter this lifecycle chapter of confidence, I will embrace my metier, conveying through my medium the expression of my convictions. ‘Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright…rage against the dying of the light.”
“My work is grounded in the experience of places that are meaningful to me: the hills and plains of south-western NSW where I live and work and Central Australia which I have visited many times.
My practice involves time spent en plein air observing and recording colours, shapes, lines and patterns of the landscape. The resulting notes, drawings and photographs are taken back to the studio where they are translated into semi-abstract paintings which are evocative rather than literal depictions of specific places. This approach leaves room for the viewer to reflect on their own memories of landscape.”
“Wendy Jagger's deep love of Australia's alpine regions permeates her paintings and ceramics, with its unique, fragile flora, colours, and rugged terrain. Time spent exploring the high country, has provided a plethora of imagery and lived experiences to inform her work, as she takes great pleasure in recording the landscape through plein-air painting, drawing, and photography. 'Roverland' is of an area dear to her heart, on the Bogong High Plains. When Wendy is painting the landscape, she feels like she is creating an ode to a great love in her life.”
“That moment in time when the light changes and glistens on the grass of the distant hills. This painting captures that feeling of sublimity, transition and the awe-inspiring force of nature. The dynamic of light and dark as a metaphor for the opposing forces in nature and in ourselves. In the end it is a celebration of the sublime, observing that last brilliant light of day and the beauty that surrounds us.”
“Coming Home, this was painted in the late afternoon. This man, a businessman, was coming home from the ferry.
I added the figure in by the time the sun almost set. I used the landscape there in this work as a reference to create my own version of the scene.
I am drawn to paint outside, often within nature where discovery is heightened.
I try to achieve a consistency and uniform weight, giving equal attention to detail in all areas of the canvas.”
“There’s a humanness here. Those cautious just-touching moments.
It is always comforting to be in the bush. There’s a privacy, an intimacy and respect. A collective strength. With the secret sounds of the trees, I fancy that I hear them whispering in the rhythm of the breeze.”
" In my paintings the experience is layered , woven, repeated as if investigating an imaginary coastal region or cross section of strata. My paintings are not only concerned with geographical forms, but also with the experience of seeing, feeling and being in a place. Tomorrow's Scape I is about the recognisable and the unknown, repose and unease, which is a condition of today and possibly we will take this feeling into tomorrow. Today we enjoy the places we know and love, remember and distort through our experience, while the land asks for our care before it becomes unrecognisable."
"An unwound mind, daydreaming while driving out of Cowra toward Woodstock.
New chapters beginning, and old ones ending.
Mum's bright new life in the country bringing with it new sights, and never before seen landscapes.
The sun setting on a stormy afternoon, quietly flying past as the light shifts, and the atmosphere changes to a new level of calm.
A moment where the embrace of the land soothed any doubts that may have been lingering about
life changing and shifting through the eras."
"The "Howling Wolf Lake" painting began as an ink sketch I roughed out during a wilderness canoe trip in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Here's a bit of the back-story.
I'm camped for the evening, focused on preparing my supper meal. A howling wail across the lake catches my attention - wolves! That howl is saying, "We know you're there; can smell your campfire"...
I recently discovered the ink sketch tucked in a book. I selected a colour scheme I felt would depict the mid-afternoon light on the rocks and surrounding woodland. Acrylic paint was my medium of choice, built up in thin layers of colour over colour."
“I grew up near Ungarie on a sheep and wheat farm called “Belleforest”. I regularly return to see my family and produce paintings on the property (en plein air), endeavouring to document farm life as I know it. This painting was produced on a clear spring day in September. Pictured is a crop of wheat. The treeline in the distance marks the property’s boundary on the northern side. This paddock has produced canola, barley and oats. There is an air strip along the eastern fenceline. It is also the view from the main house where I grew up.”
“This view reminded me of the contrast between relationships. Relief and contrast, manipulation of scale, all speak to the sameness and difference in both the human and natural worlds.
The tension inherent in the work holds the viewer just longer enough to allow the mind to ponder whilst the chroma choice and boldness of the foreground provides an entry point from which to consider your perspective.
The expressionist style is less about location and more about an evocation of relationships.”
“The painting represents the Australian landscape as viewed from my window and speaks to ideas of 'home'. As a child I learned textile skills by watching my mother at her sewing machine. Later, I sat by the Barwon with Elders and learned ancient weaving practices. Home is divided between two places - one is Dharawal Country where I am a guest, the other is my Grandmother's ancestral home on Ngemba and Muruwarri Country. Home comes together; the ever-present Flying Foxes that inhabit the gums below Mt Keira and the suburban backyard are connected to my cultural ways of making and weaving.”
"I could see the storm brewing in the distance. The deep blue water churned around the rocks and the wind whipped around me. Should I keep going or turn back I asked myself?"
Whilst walking in and painting the landscape Rachel Rae pauses time to think about the rhythm of life, and like the water churning, the way we ruminate over decisions. But after every storm there is sunshine. So even if you decide to head straight into the storm, you will grow and learn from the experience and your sun will shine brighter.”
“Winter 2021, my wife and I on a trip through SW Qld. Covid had closed the borders so you could travel all day hardly seeing a soul. The country is arid, hard, beautiful. Vehicle tracks are ubiquitous. I started thinking of 4WDs in TV commercials as modern-day Ned Kellys roaming the landscape, as hard, dangerous and inscrutable as Sidney Nolan's outlaw. This painting's title, 'Be what you wanna be', comes from one of these ads. It's part of a series called 'The Enormous Vastness', borrowing a line from Kev Carmody's 'Droving Woman'. The landscape is hard country north of Birdsville.”
“I once heard it said that rocks speak, but very slowly: it takes a million years for them to say a word.
I am drawn to this scene on the one hand by the intense energy of the angular shattered outcrop – as though it had just burst out of the ground – and on the other by the sublime repose of the river bed where changes are measured in millennia.”
“Based in Brisbane, Kate Marek is primarily a landscape painter who is constantly inspired by the natural beauty of this country and its flora. Her interest lies in colour: its painterly application and its evocative power. “Smoky Cape” was painted en plein air on Kate’s recent travels along Australia’s Eastern coast.
Kate has been a practicing artist for the past 20 years and has won numerous awards. Her work is held in private collections worldwide. “Colourscape”, her first solo exhibition, is currently showing at Wild Canary in Brisbane.”
“I moved to Goulburn in 2021, to the lands of the Njunawal and Gundungurra people, all masked up & socially-distanced. The forests of eucalypts, gorges and waterfalls breathed a deep welcome and I was inspired to revisit my love for landscape painting. The woodlands here bare evidence of fires, floods, droughts, rainstorms and suburban development. Roos and wallabies live amongst snow-gums and scribblys. Tiny bugs zig-zag trails up tree trunks; as seasons change, bark peels to reveal new colours. Birdsong everywhere. And silence.
Meanwhile, a Cortina shimmers like an installation, immersed mid forest, not going anywhere soon.”
“This landscape was first conceived in the flicking light between sleep and awake as my work is primarily concerned with exploring ambiguous narratives.
Using acrylic paint and oil stick to create a conversation between repeated forms and structures, the work was highly process driven as I was interested in the interplay between colours and marks.
My practice involves investigative mark making and exploring a dissonance within colour theory. Although this landscape is imagined it feels both familiar and strange at the same time.”
“Great happiness and contentment can be found in the simple observation of Australian landscapes. Through painting, I endeavour to communicate those aspects of the landscape that I find particularly aesthetically pleasing. In this work, it is the motif of the eucalyptus tree branches, the shadows formed within the clefts of the rocky cliff, and the contrast of the foliage against the bright daytime sky. My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the landscape around them, to discover the extraordinary beauty that this continent offers us.”
"Erudgere Lane runs in the base of the valley and just below the foreground in this painting. I have been looking at and painting these hills for 20 years or so. There are so many different colours and light in familiar landscapes like this one. The morning light in this painting was breaking through early cloud and mist. I have attempted to paint this scene expressively in colour and quite quickly so that both the brushstrokes and colour replicate the transience of the light. I still paint these same hills but have not seen a similar light since".
"Victoria Park Greens is a celebration of Brisbane's urban and natural beauty. The painting captures the serene landscape of the golf course, with the city's high-rises blending seamlessly into the blue sky, creating a harmonious balance between urban and natural landscapes.
I sought to convey the sense of escape and tranquility that one can experience in this gem of a park. Through this painting, I hope to transport viewers to this idyllic oasis and inspire them to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.”
“Here east of Katherine NT is where the water flows. It brings life, a constant force that carves its way through rock and feeds this place with its liquid element. During the dry season it is a serene calm unassuming flow in which we paddle. When it wakes in the wet heat of summer it becomes a force that renews this landscape. It burns, it drinks, it flourishes in green renewal. The cycle starts over.”
“Having grown up in Melbourne's inner-city, I have long been inspired by it's streets and architecture. The buildings have formed such a fundamental part of my upbringing, and have shaped my view of life the city.
Increasingly I use this architecture to explore the idea of the alienation of life within a large city. My work explores the juxtaposition between the close proximity in which we live, and the distance and sense of isolation which so often comes along with that life.”
“This work is an expression of what I find beautiful in my world, inspiration is seeded in my observations and interactions in nature. Drawn to expansive skies, the subtraction of colour is a quiet contemplation of the beauty of sky lights and signs of life in rooftops and powerlines. My approach to painting is photorealistic so as to understand what makes the landscape so emotive and interesting.”
“I am interested in perception and my work hinges on the idea that paintings require a temporality of engagement which contrasts with the fleeting, screen-based images that dominate much of our daily experience. Working mainly in landscapes I explore atmospheric conditions and the ambiguities of vision that cannot be translated through simple iPhone snapshots.
The painting "Almost There" is about when you've been driving in the country and you know you've almost reached your destination because the bitumen stops and it becomes a dirt road.”
“Inspired by the Thomas poem, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’, Havoc is a response to our society and its dying relationship with nature. I have realised over the last few years that I contain significantly more fight than freeze or flight. My kinship with the ocean runs deep and her relentless tide and reflections of light strengthen my ideologies. As I enter this lifecycle chapter of confidence, I will embrace my metier, conveying through my medium the expression of my convictions. ‘Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright…rage against the dying of the light.”
“My work is grounded in the experience of places that are meaningful to me: the hills and plains of south-western NSW where I live and work and Central Australia which I have visited many times.
My practice involves time spent en plein air observing and recording colours, shapes, lines and patterns of the landscape. The resulting notes, drawings and photographs are taken back to the studio where they are translated into semi-abstract paintings which are evocative rather than literal depictions of specific places. This approach leaves room for the viewer to reflect on their own memories of landscape.”
“Wendy Jagger's deep love of Australia's alpine regions permeates her paintings and ceramics, with its unique, fragile flora, colours, and rugged terrain. Time spent exploring the high country, has provided a plethora of imagery and lived experiences to inform her work, as she takes great pleasure in recording the landscape through plein-air painting, drawing, and photography. 'Roverland' is of an area dear to her heart, on the Bogong High Plains. When Wendy is painting the landscape, she feels like she is creating an ode to a great love in her life.”
“That moment in time when the light changes and glistens on the grass of the distant hills. This painting captures that feeling of sublimity, transition and the awe-inspiring force of nature. The dynamic of light and dark as a metaphor for the opposing forces in nature and in ourselves. In the end it is a celebration of the sublime, observing that last brilliant light of day and the beauty that surrounds us.”
“Coming Home, this was painted in the late afternoon. This man, a businessman, was coming home from the ferry.
I added the figure in by the time the sun almost set. I used the landscape there in this work as a reference to create my own version of the scene.
I am drawn to paint outside, often within nature where discovery is heightened.
I try to achieve a consistency and uniform weight, giving equal attention to detail in all areas of the canvas.”
“There’s a humanness here. Those cautious just-touching moments.
It is always comforting to be in the bush. There’s a privacy, an intimacy and respect. A collective strength. With the secret sounds of the trees, I fancy that I hear them whispering in the rhythm of the breeze.”
" In my paintings the experience is layered , woven, repeated as if investigating an imaginary coastal region or cross section of strata. My paintings are not only concerned with geographical forms, but also with the experience of seeing, feeling and being in a place. Tomorrow's Scape I is about the recognisable and the unknown, repose and unease, which is a condition of today and possibly we will take this feeling into tomorrow. Today we enjoy the places we know and love, remember and distort through our experience, while the land asks for our care before it becomes unrecognisable."