Collection: EMMA STUART
After taking three years away from her art practice between 2011- 2014 being based in Berlin, Emma Stuart returned to Australia to reside in Mparntwe (Alice Springs NT). Since then she has been gripped by Arrernte country’s vibrant geographical and demographical history and is drawn to paint its evocative landscapes. In particular its riverbeds, clay pans and tributaries and their ever-present company, the trees. Focusing on the sublime moments that take place as a day transitions to night and night to day. Stuart captures the liminal shift between light and shade, between what is revealed and what is hidden, between the point of focus and distorted peripheries. Instead of focusing on broad vistas typically depicted by central Australian landscape painters, Emma is drawn to the intimate scapes, the personalities of the individual tree and its journeys though the different seasons and conditions bared upon it by the Australian desert’s harsh climate. Since returning to Melbourne inmate 2019, Emma has been residing in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and has been studying the Merri creek and its trees near her home.
