Tasmania; the final destination of a curtailed journey wandering Australia. With a world pandemic enforcing travel restrictions, I retreated home to Northern New South Wales. ‘Painting Tasmania’ evolved as a vicarious pleasure when the world was sent into lockdown and isolation.
Reliving my time in the endemic wonderland became an antidote to states of chaos, infecting society. A land of sanctuary and the last frontier for many species, these paintings transport me to a place of refuge. Becoming my companions these works are fuelled by recollections, sustained by emotions, and abstracted through processes of remembering.
‘Painting Tasmania’ is a tribute to the resilience of the natural world that allows us to exist.
…As we walked into the forest with packs full of food, water and shelter, the land shifted from dry sclerophyll to wet, green, mossy rainforest. Over-saturated with green and brown, it was easy to see the slow moving black snake, but the echidna was only visible from the sound of scratching wood. The distant calls of the yellow-tailed black cockatoos grew louder and it was as if we walked into a wall of honey. Leatherwood flowers in full bloom provided a banquet for the excitable birds. Soon we were on mountains with snow and thousand year old conifers, mystified by the multitude of tarns and fresh water. Instantly saturated when the rain came, but still excited to see Tasmanian Devil scats. We set up camp and as I painted, our neighbour came to investigate, the largest platypus I have seen, bold and unafraid. The sun gave pink kisses as the night fell into out tent and wisdoms of wombats emerged. Blue Gums with pink bark surrounded us and at dusk, a devil walked in for dinner. The mountain cradled us as we slept underneath a star soaked sky. Delicate birds made sure we weren’t a threat and I can’t stop thinking about those Leatherwood flowers…
Emily Imeson 2020
Having spent the past few years as a perpetual nomad, passing through some of Australia’s most iconic landscapes, Emily Imeson can speak with authority on the therapeutic benefits of being engulfed by nature. For Imeson, it is fundamental to her wellbeing – living in a 4WD and working from a camp studio where canvases are routinely supported by tree branches instead of easels, provides calm and perspective amongst life’s dramas. It is a way of life that both balances the artist and reinforces her interest in celebrating and preserving the ancient connection between humanity and the land. A truly plein air painter, Imeson’s canvases depict the incredible natural phenomena she witnesses – dramatically transformed landscapes at dusk, the mass movement of wildlife through habitats, arid rockscapes bathed in sunlight, a jet-black sky filled with stars.
To date Imeson’s practice has been as much about the experience of continuous wanderlust as it has the act of painting however newly introduced restrictions to travel and outdoor activities have forced a rethink on how she connects with her environment. Now living a more sedentary lifestyle in Northern New South Wales, she is working from memory, finding new ways to describe the places she has been and learning to embrace change as readily as the landscape around her always has.
Emily Imeson is an alumnus of Southern Cross University, completing her Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2016. Winner of the Macquarie Group Emerging Art Prize in 2019, she was supported by a Young Regional Arts Scholarship through ARTS New South Wales from 2016-18. In 2020 she was a recipient of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.
Carrie McCarthy, 2020
