Immersion in Landscape

Near and Far IX, 2025, oil on board, 15 x 30 cm

Last Sunday I was drawn again to the shores of Glenbrook Lagoon, near my studio in the Blue Mountains. While the air was still crisp and the light soft, I made my way to a secluded place to look deeply — to immerse myself in the watery landscape. 

As I gazed into the shallows, the reflected shapes invited me into their depths, casting my attention inward and upward. With the slightest breath of air, the mirrored forms shifted; edges dissolving and reshaping, evoking mysterious other worlds.

Boundaries seemed to blur between the real and the unreal, the image and the form, depth and compression, light and shadow. As if on a threshold, I felt led within to explore these tensions.

As I headed back to my studio, I thirsted to paint, to investigate my perceptions of this landscape with marks on canvas. My curiosity was piqued. I felt a bubbling excitement. I carried with me sensations, thoughts and imagery only made possible by time and presence.

Meaningful practice emerges through experiences like this. Sustained time immersed in landscape, observation and deep dialogue. Of being within landscape rather than looking at it.

This is partly why I began offering retreats in the Capertee Valley — to create a place for people to step more fully into this kind of sustained attention. Where they too can immerse in landscape, away from the demands of everyday life — taking time to observe, paint, walk, reflect, discuss and work deeply.

Now the smell and lustre of oil paint fills my studio. The gentle rain on the roof taps a steady rhythm, yet my focus is held by each mark, the inflection of the brush and the nuance of every colour.