Description
Sarah LOW
Victoria
‘Looking Back; Tea Tree Creek, Cairns Bay’ 2025
oil and earth pigment on board
46 x 61cm
How can I belong in a land that is not my birthplace? I am a migrant to this country. I know it has a bloody and terrible past, with great injustices made to its first peoples. I don’t want to continue those injustices by claiming connection to a land that is not my own, but I love Cairns Bay. Wild, powerful and calming, it is a place where I remember that I am small, and the earth goes on regardless. I return to paint here time and again. Beneath the surface of this painting is another painting, made with rock I found on the shore, tumbled out of a layer of red earth millions of years old. Working en plein air, immersed in the landscape, I paint this place with earth from this place to draw attention to the land and create a connection between the image and the land itself. A meditative, reflective portrait of place. While this tiny creek reflects the sky, the painting reflects on the land beneath it, and is a reflection on belonging, ancient history, and how we connect with land.
