S a r a h B e l l
m o r n i n g t o n p e n i n s u l a v i c t o r i a / b o o n w u r r u n g c o u n t r y
BA Fine Arts VCA / Dip. Ed. Monash University. Finalist: Omnia Art Prize, MCAP Art Prize
info@sarah-bell-artist.com
I hereby acknowledge that I work on what always was and always will be the land of the Boon wurrung/Bunurong people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to Elders past and present, as well as to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the wider community and beyond. Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded.
Early work
After completing a Fine Arts degree with a major in printmaking at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1985, I left Melbourne for the Kiah River on the South Coast of New South Wales. There I was immersed in the subtle and ever-changing light of the Australian bush, while living without power on a pristine river at the mouth of Eden's Twofold Bay.
Co-habiting with wildlife such as goannas, bowerbirds, wallabies, sea eagles and the occasional wombat, this experience reconnected me to my childhood wanderings around creeks and bushland of Sydney's north shore.
This time shaped my deep reverence and urgent need to return to wild, natural landscapes. I roamed river and mud flats, experiencing the elements with a portable easel and oils to paint en plein air and faced the challenges of capturing the light and landscape at particular times of the day.
While these works at times appear dark and moody, I was deliberately seeking to capture of subtle nuances of light in the landscape. To live without artificial light I found that my whole self adjusted to lunar rhythms and I became like an animal who moves instinctively in the dark. For me, darkness in nature is a comfort and the absence of light offers a silence and beauty to discover a connection with all things."
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