Exhibition

Anita West

An Intimate View

01 Oct - 29 Oct 2022

Most of us live within a moment of the Australian bush and as a culture we are learning to embrace and love the distinct earthiness, subtle hues, chaotic rhythms, ravaging bushfires and drought-breaking rains. We congregate around its edges and melt into its wild. We breathe in the majestic landscapes and immerse ourselves in its fierceness and beauty.

I am interested in the idea of romantic notions attached to the Australian bush and I am attempting to explore these elements using boundaries between abstraction and realism, emotion and perception through my engagement with this beautiful land.

My work is mostly place based, and my practice is concerned with the recording and interpretation of natural habitat that has been  preserved or protected as part of land conservation and National Park World Heritage.  Also I am interested in exploring local bushland that is under threat of development; this can be a local community bush reserve or simply a block of land that has significant native species or old growth trees that are in danger of being rezoned or  under threat of human induced changes.  I am always searching for new landscapes, and new influences for my paintings and I use these ideas as a backdrop for my work.”