Seeking the Essence Oil on Arches oil paper 20 × 50 cm Framed dimensions: 33 × 60 cm Oak frame with gallery non-reflective glass Ready to hang with D-rings and string
Looking straight across the inlet towards the ocean at Waychinicup, Seeking the Essence was painted on an overcast day when much of the colour and reflected light I am usually drawn to had disappeared.
Without that familiar interplay of colour, the place seemed to reveal something different. There was a quieter but perhaps stronger sense of its underlying character — something less visual and more difficult to define.
Rather than chasing reflections or the changing colour of the water, I was trying to find what remained when those things were stripped away. The painting became an attempt to reach beyond the surface qualities of the landscape and get closer to the feeling of the place itself.
This work was painted as part of Horizons, curated by Carly Le Cerf.
