The work: Brigid Hill, Spirits, 2022. Gouache on 300GSM watercolour paper, 56 x 76cm. Courtesy: the artist.
“Trees are not inanimate objects dotted across the landscape”, says NSW-based artist Brigid Hill, “they are alive, they tell stories, they have spiritual importance as well as being landmarks for birthing sites, burial grounds, marking territories and providing shelter”. This cultural and symbolic significance that trees hold, one that supersedes any geographic or social boundaries, is the subject of Hill’s newest series Deities. In Spirits, the first of this series, we see a massive Red River Gum Tree — a specific tree grown in the Flinders Range, South Australia that the artist painted with permission from a photograph. Hill prefers to depict trees that are visually complex, with arching branches and peeling bark, making this particular sitter perfect. Using gouache, the artist layers the many shades and hues of the tree’s imposing trunk and scattered foliage. Aging bark flakes and peels, shedding slowly over time to reveal pale tracts of new wood. This process makes visible the passing of time, articulating the longevity of each individual tree when left undisturbed. The experiences of trees are etched quite literally into their form, with rings marking harsh winters, and memories of bushfires left in ashy burns surrounded by new growth, all of this given reverence in Hill’s work.