Averill Lawler - Wispy Weather, Opossum Bay
$260.00
Wispy Weather
Opossum Bay
Averill Lawler
Oil on wooden panel
20 cm diameter
Where the Land and Sea Entwine, 1- 31 March 2024
I grew up on the shores of the Derwent River where the estuary morphs into Storm Bay. My playground was the sand dunes and a curious series of rockpools with a small rocky reef only visible when the tide is at its lowest ebb. In this place, golden rocks shine through the water and play with the turquoise and sea greens of the river.
This exhibition, Where the Land and Sea Entwine, started with a series of small paintings of my childhood rockpools. I see them and think of the hours spent exploring, playing, spotting tiny translucent baitfish, sand crabs under the rocks, anemones. The pools full of Neptune’s Necklace, tiny white barnacles, limpets and mussels. These seascapes, so dear to me, are echoed along the coastline of lutruwita/Tasmania and are quite universal too.
These works offer an exploration of places where the land and sea entwine. I have ventured (through paint) to the places that I find myself returning to again and again. Sometimes it is the utterly beguiling way that water catches the light in the shallows and casts rainbows and cascades across the rock pools. Other times it is about the light in the sky or the power of the waves as they are whipped by the wind.
My local beaches now are Taroona and Hinsby Beaches and they have that little bit of wild about them, even though they are in the suburbs. Here my kids and I collect shells, go rockhopping, watch the waves roll in and explore the minutiae of the shallows. There is often seaweed washed ashore. These nearby places are juxtaposed with those more distant, like Wineglass Bay, with its sparkling turquoise water, white sand and the ancient presence of granite mountains that overlook it.
There are also my favourite wild places, The Friendly Beaches, Calvert’s Beach and Pirates Bay with their piles of kelp, powerful water and sculptural landforms shaped by the elements. Standing on the shore at low tide, the golden swathes of bull kelp are mesmerising. Places where I feel the power of nature have shaped the choice of works in this show. They reflect our everyday interactions with place and explore our relationship with lutruwita/Tasmania. I hope they evoke a sense of that for you too.
