The work:Nanou Dupuis, The Neck Lookout, 2021. Mixed media on Italian cotton, 91.5 x 153cm. Courtesy: the artist.
A vision of crashing waves and sea foam, Victoria-based artist Nanou Dupuis’ The Neck Lookout uses whorls of colour to commit the memory of Tasmania’s Bruny Island Neck to canvas. Using natural pigments brought back from her native Belgium, the artist layers continuous brushstrokes into a visceral representation of her experience of the narrow isthmus that separates North and South Bruny Island. Recalled years after her visit, this encounter with the raw power of nature proved crystal clear despite the passing of time. The lookout above the beach gives visitors a breath-taking 360 degree view of the area, and this bird’s-eye perspective is dramatically communicated by Dupuis’ abstract style. One can almost hear the sounds of the ocean in this work, the artist’s energetic motions replicating the swift movement of water on either side of the slender strip of land, her strokes twisting and turning in long arcs. Deep greens run among creamy whites, interspersed with eddies of pale blues that provide a moment of calm amongst the maelstrom. In this work, the artist conveys a sense of total freedom and reprieve, despite the realities of her Covid-19 isolation experience while executing the piece.