Buda Mangroves, Homebush Bay, 2022: Swamps, Creeks and Watersheds

Contemporary en plein air landscape painting continues to play a vital role in how artists engage with and represent the natural world, emphasising direct, immersive interaction with the environment. This practice fosters a deep personal connection to place, where the act of painting outdoors becomes both a creative and contemplative experience. Unlike fleeting or idealised depictions, en plein air work often reflects the artist’s evolving relationship with the landscape, shaped by changes in light, weather, and seasonal cycles. The creation of multiple works overtime allows for sustained observation, encouraging nuanced responses and the development of more complex, layered compositions.

This body of research comprises a suite of eight en plein air works on paper, developed through sustained, on-site engagement with four ecologically and culturally significant locations along the New South Wales coast: Mackerel Beach, the Myall River estuaries, the Badu Mangroves at Homebush Bay, and the elevated vantage from Yacaaba Headland. These works contribute to contemporary discourse on place-based artistic practice by foregrounding the act of immersive, observational drawing and painting as a method of ecological inquiry. Each landscape captures specific atmospheric and spatial qualities of these diverse environments, with the aim to reflect the embodied presence and temporal engagement with shifting light, weather, tidal patterns and the uniqueness of place. By working directly within these coastal and estuarine systems, the resulting works are not only records visual impressions but also engages in a dialogic process with the landscape—responding to its materiality, rhythms, and ecological conditions. This research advances the field of landscape art by demonstrating how en plein air methodologies can serve as sensitive tools for representing, understanding, and advocating for vulnerable natural environments.

This suite of eight en plein air works on paper offers a vital contribution to contemporary landscape art by reasserting the significance of direct, site-based engagement in capturing the dynamic and fragile ecologies of coastal New South Wales. Through attentive observation and material responsiveness, the works deepen our understanding of place and environmental change, positioning en plein air practice as a meaningful mode of ecological awareness and artistic research.