Further Downstream

‘Further Downstream’ is a new body of work by Albury-based painter Edwina Edwards—her first exhibition with Michael Reid in more than four years.

The collection was formed following time spent at Wendy McDonald’s Glencoe Farm, around Thule Lagoon, and in the wetlands of Murray Valley National Park. This is not a landscape of ascent or outlook, but of spread: reedbeds, flooded edges, low grasses and distant treelines held in long horizontal passages.

Edwards understands that this country is best caught obliquely. Rather than fixing a single view, she lets the image gather through accumulations of marks—blue canopies pressed against pale skies, mauves and pinks breaking across the scrub line, water opening in cool bands through the foreground.

“Though geographically distinct from my daily surroundings, this landscape is not separate from it,” says the artist. “The Murray River forms a living thread between my home in the Albury hills and these downstream wetlands. Water carries stories, sediments, and memory. In moving downstream, I am not leaving my own landscape behind, but tracing its extension—following its flow into broader, quieter country.”