The Sweetest Thing | Chantal de Kock

Chantal is an Australian artist who grew up in many outback country towns throughout Australia in an era where outdoor play was the mode of life.

She now calls the Gippsland region, with it's beautiful natural landscapes home.

Chantal is interested in how we live on the earth in a way that reduces our impact and cares about this in both her work practices and the way she lives.

Chantal often uses natural ochres and pigments that are native to the places that hold deep meaning for her.

Chantal believes we are of nature and as such should work to live in harmony with it. In it and of it rather than trying to control it.

By using loose gestural marks she hopes to convey this sense of letting go of control and allowing ourselves to be within the cycles and imperfect systems of nature.

Chantal's response portrays the importance of the lanscape in our physical and inner lives.

Rather than reproducing specific scenes, she seeks to convey the sense of being in the landscape, thereby engaging memory and imagination.

Her work is somewhere in-between figuration and abstraction, between what we see and what we feel.

"Summer days and we make our way along the path to our beach spot.”

“The ocean has retreated and the creek is now a small puddle of herself. The trees line her edges and we make our way down to the beach. A place that has seen us grow and change.”

“Acknowledging that this is part of the journey. That children will grow and find their own way. That we will change just as the landscape shifts with time. That life really is the sweetest thing."

Chantal de Kock, 2024.

Shipping to anywhere in Australia is jut $30 for this work. International shipping is available on request.