The work of Darwin-based artist Steph Brooke is both a study of the Australian landscape, and a study of the artist herself. Her piece Wildflowers of the Valley was executed during a time of great change for the
artist, when a newborn joined the family. “The dance of the underpainting was a lot like my rhythms in early motherhood: add, subtract, edit, rinse, repeat,” she says, adding that baby wipes are particularly good for modulating surfaces and removing tracts of colour. The work was therefore born from the cyclical growth and change central to a thriving ecosystem, and this combination of chaos and vitality is felt in the painting.

Featured in Art Edit 16 May 2024