The Kimberleys Collection

A story told while floating along Chamberlain Gorge connected me to this landscape in a deeper way because it aligns with my painting process and how I create my artworks. We listened to the story of the land and how it has been formed over billions of years by the elements of earth, fire, wind, and water. The earth holds us and is an ancient stage formed over 1.8 billion years. Wildfire renews the savanna, cleansing and bringing new life to the ecosystem. The sandstone cliffs and weeping iron ore are carved by rain and floods during the wet seasons. Wind further carves and erodes the rocks, twists the trees, and carries stories of our past. Water sustains life on Earth in the dry season and further shapes the landscape in the monsoonal season.

This process parallels my thoughts on painting, in which I see every living element on Earth as an ecosystem with a microbiome. Nature is a complex system; we are complex systems, and we are all supported by the elements that make up our existence. I always start my artworks with pigment and water on a blank canvas. It’s always been symbolic of the water on Earth sustaining life. You need to begin somewhere—this feels like the best first mark for me on a blank canvas. It’s never intimidating to start an artwork this way; it feels essential and true. Pigments of paint are diluted with mediums to create transparent layers and depth. There is never just one layer—there was never just one rain. Next, I create thicker bodies of paint in deeper colors and begin to loosely capture the textures of the earth. In this body of work, a more raw edge was intentionally laid down, and then water was added to remove pigments, representing the water shaping the sandstone cliffs over time. Wind is present in the way the botanical layers are shaped and connected to each other. The shape of the leaves and contouring curves suggest movement and flow. Wildfire is present in both the underpainting (background) in areas that feel like charred trees, and in the new shoots on top layers, signaling renewal and new life.

Through my artistic impression and process, you can feel my powerful connection to the Earth and the reason for bringing this body of work to life.

The landscape in the Kimberley region is so vast and varied that, to do this body of work justice, it needed to be split into two parts. “The Kimberley Pt. 1” focuses on the earth and fire elements of the landscapes. As you’ve read above, all four elements are represented in each of my artworks; however, each artwork has a primary focus on just one of the elements. Part two will be based on the wind and water elements and released later in the year.

I hope you have the opportunity to feel grounded and connect with this wonderful landscape we live in, in any capacity. I’m forever grateful for your support in allowing me to explore these rich and meaningful areas of the world, and to create and bring them back to you to share.

I hope you saw something that made you smile today — and that you had the capacity to pass it on.

With love,

Steph