Chantal is an Australian artist who grew up in many outback and small country towns throughout Australia in an era where outdoor play was the mode of life. She now calls the Gippsland region with its beautiful natural landscapes home. Her works are of a semi abstract nature where she uses loose and gestural brushstrokes to evoke a feeling of the bush and landscape that she calls home. Like our own unique signature these brush marks are the elements in her art that makes it unique. Chantal likes to use loose expressive marks to describe the landscape and earth that we live on.

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 loves using colour and texture in her work to build up layers as she tells the story of the Australian landscape. Chantal often uses natural ochres and pigments that are native to the places that hold deep meaning for her. Her paintings tell a beautiful story of the Australian landscape as works of poetry in paint.

Chantal’s use of ground earth pigments collected from the region locally connect her work in a physical way as they are worked into the paintings. These works are a collection of landscapes that hold deep meaning for her as she celebrates the collaboration of nature and art making. By using elements of the earth in her artwork it connects the art in a physical and emotional way to the place that it is from. 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.

Read more about Chantal here.

The air is crisp and clear. With snacks and water bottles in our backpack and adventure ahead of us we set out to drink in the beauty of this place. It's hard to imagine that rivers, streams and lakes lay this high up in the alps. That even up here the wild brumbies and other animals can still find fresh water and that the streams follow down the hill feeding the land below. You can see where the streams follow underground, trails of plants follow it in drifts. The best kind of landscape design where the plants know where to grow and do so beautifully, winding their way in elegant curves like the movement of a graceful dancer. The golden stalks of grass swaying in the breeze like a beautiful dance to the song of the mountain. When we reach the summit thick cloud covers over and our visibility is non-existent, we stop and huddle behind rocks and catch our breath, eating our nuts and fruit before venturing back down. The clouds dissipate and beautiful golden grasses are interspersed with patches of rock. I notice the way the sunlight catches on the hilltops as the sun peeks back through the clouds. Vistas that lead our eyes into distant rocky outcrops. The shimmer of the sun on the icy water of Blue Lake. We hope to visit again when the wildflowers are in bloom.

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