Developing an Abstract Visual Language for Place, Landscape and a Sense of Belonging
- May 31
- 6 min read
My current creative inquiry is focused on exploring how to tell the story of where I have come from and where I find myself now; narratives and reflections on two diverse landscapes that I have inhabited, and ones which, over time have come to inhabit me.
| A New Abstract Visual Language
I am searching for an abstract visual language that allows me to express the deeply held feeling I have of carrying two places within me: the ancient, wild and weathered landscapes of Yorkshire, and the luminous coastal country of Australia’s Sunshine Coast.
At the time of writing this is a live and ongoing creative inquiry as I have opened my mind to the possibilities of incorporating symbolic elements from both landscapes into artworks that are emerging as part of my Threshold Series.
This series is becoming more and more about my origin story; capturing and expressing feelings of belonging and 'home' and the ways in which I relate to my environment.
My latest paintings are journeys through time and place beginning in early childhood in the Yorkshire Dales and for the time being, ending here and now on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia.
| Historical 'Fluency in Place'
Growing up in Yorkshire, I was surrounded by a landscape shaped by weather, history and a physical environment shaped by glacial activity. The moors, stone walls and wide skies created a quiet but powerful sense of place. There was a feeling of being utterly grounded in the landscape there with it's muted colours and shadows moving constantly across the rolling hills. It was all so much bigger than I was.
I always felt surrounded by history, that much I do remember. We lived in an old stone cottage surrounded by hand built drystone walls, where every rock was smothered in grey-green intricate lichens, creating an aged patina over ever surface. A small stream flowed directly past the house, burbling over rocks and creating shallow pools here and there. It was a place to while away childhood hours; paddling, building dams and floating paper boats and racing sticks on the current. The soothing sound of water was never far away.
I am amazed at how my early life experience of 'physical environment' has left me with such a strong sense of place; because at the time I wasn't aware I was noticing or thinking about the physical shape of the land, the rolling hills, the rivers and streams, the pattern of the dry stone walls in the valley floor or the stone field barns randomly scattered in the Yorkshire dales.
| Absorbing the Landscape
But clearly these visual and sensory references became embedded in my psyche and became very much a part of my identity, without my being cognisant of it.
And here I am now all these years later, referencing those early impressions which have remained dormant for much of my life.
Along with the visual references I can feel a deep recognition from within that this is the land I came from. I often wonder if this has to do with eating food grown in this land, being subject to the same hours of daylight and darkness as this land and absorbing the natural energy from the land as I spent many, many hours walking in it and exploring it as I grew up. The landscape is literally in my bones.
| Responding to Landscape
Early experiences of observing the natural world, even if I didn’t realise it at the time, planted the seeds for the way I respond to landscape now as an artist.
Although the landscapes of my childhood and the ones that inspire my work today are very different, both continue to inform the way I experience the natural world.
The journey from Yorkshire to Australia (and global wanderings in between) has become a foundational story in my art making practice and it's become a path that has deepened my connection to landscape and environment.
Arriving in Australia 20 or so years ago, I found a place that at once felt both exhilarating and unfamiliar. The light was brighter, the colours more intense, and the ecosystems entirely different from the landscapes I had known in England. The sensory experience of landscape changed in an instant - the heat, the light, and the ever present smell of Eucalypt.
Over time, what began as a feeling of distance and dislocation from my homeland slowly transformed into curiosity and attentiveness of my new surroundings.
I found myself discovering a new visual language in the land — noticing the rhythms of eucalyptus forests, the intricate structures of Australian native plants and the diversity of ecosystems found along shorelines, in waterways, in rainforests and even in the red desert.
| Origins in Landscape
In many ways, moving from Yorkshire to Australia became part of my origin story as an artist.
It sharpened my awareness of place and the way landscapes shape how I see, feel and respond to the world. Living between these two very different environments has made me especially interested in consciously observing nature, registering patterns and feeling the subtle energies within landscapes. Becoming finely attuned to my environment has become an essential part of 'being'.
My abstract landscape work grows out of this process of learning to be present in a place — paying attention to the forms, textures and relationships that reveal themselves over time.
As I am working on my current sketches from my local environment, Lake Weyba in particular, I realise I am still developing my fluency of place here in Australia, having been here 20 or so years - a mere microcosm of time in the grand scheme of things!
I thought I would never get used to the endless gum trees - they all seemed to look the same to begin with! The variety of trees in the English landscape is still unsurpassed, but over time I have come to appreciate the unique differences in the Australian gum trees.
| Landscape Conversations
There is a difference between living somewhere and truly knowing it and feeling that it is somewhere I belong. That difference sits at the heart of my current painting inquiry.
I see patterns rather than fragments. I recognise that I am sustained by what I pay attention to in the landscape.
Yet my abstract mixed media landscapes are not representations.
They are conversations.
They are attempts to translate my unique language of place and belonging into paint, print, paper and pattern.
And in that translation, I find not only creative direction — but a deeper sense of coming 'home'.
Each year shifts perspective. My art practice evolves alongside my understanding of the land I inhabit and my place within it.
Abstraction creates a portal for viewers to enter into a conversation with a painting, bringing with them their own experiences of the land, encouraging a felt response, a remembering of place, home and belonging that needs no worded description.
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