At Sea \ On A Mountain is a collection of drawings from various sketchbooks done between 2019-2026 come together in the form of classroom chalk boards.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The world is made fresh and new every morning.
Each day the sun compels us to see.
Each day a world of images.
Sometimes horrific, mostly beautiful.
I can’t help but look.
I thank traditional owners and custodians for the privilege of living and painting in Yuin country, Wathaurong country and Arrernte country.
Landscape painting is a whole-hearted encounter with place. The face of the country is expressive and always changing. Side-long light at dawn; boisterous wind at midday; sea mist, cool air off the water at dusk - the moods and stories that speak of the indivisible life of people and land.
Painting is a ground where many elements come together. The outer world of light and colour, atmosphere and movement touches inner worlds of memory and emotion, vivid sensations, and the pleasures and sadness of being in country. Layered histories make themselves felt: so much has happened here, so much has been lost, and still the country is so alive.
‘There is only one world. Things outside only exist if you go to meet them with everything you carry in yourself. As to the things inside, you will never see them well unless you allow those outside to enter in.’ Jacques Lusseyran
Painting practice shows me the ‘one world’. It draws attention to ‘things outside’ and ‘things inside’, their intertwining, and the inescapable relatedness of people and place. A landscape painting can be like an intimate portrait, full of life, feeling, and relatedness.
Based in Dalmeny on Yuin Country since 2018, Natasha's practice invokes liminal passages where different systems of knowing become accessible beyond rational thought. Working intuitively with photography, sound, and language, her process is shaped by forces beyond her own intention. Her intimate work with plants has explored how medicine transmits through frequency, silence, and shadow.
Flowering And Blue Abyss explores the spiral axis of shamanic consciousness—where blooming and descent exist simultaneously. The corrupted colour and deep shadows in these photographs invoke altered perception rather than document it. Fragmented text emerged through erasure and layering, resisting ordered interpretation—traces of plant communication.
These photographs were made in 2021 during the same period as Time Stretches My Limits, a sonic and visual installation that marked a significant development in her practice and was presented at the Mechanics Institute in Moruya.
Shunyam presents a contemplative body of work inspired by the resilience of nature and the quiet transformation that follows destruction. This exhibition reflects on renewal, impermanence, and the enduring presence of beauty in all stages of life and landscape.
Traveling through the high country of Victoria and New South Wales after devastating bushfires, Shunyam discovered unexpected beauty in burned-out forests. Bone-white skeletons of trees spread across ridges as far as the eye could see. Within years, these skeletal forms sank below green waves of regrowth as the forest reclaimed itself. Her work reminds us that even in darkness, beauty can be found if we remain open to seeing it. Change becomes a gateway to remarkable things.
Shunyam has lived for many years on the Far South Coast of NSW near Bermagui. Her passion for weaving goes back to the time she lived in Norway where some of the oldest tapestries originated, and ancient myths were told about trees and forests. Since graduating with Honours from ANU Canberra, she has been weaving and painting, exhibiting nationally and internationally.