Meg Walters

There is a meditative pull in the work of Meg Walters, a painter and ceramicist whose art hovers between the seen and the unseen. Born in Bermuda, an island where the sub-tropical lushness feels otherworldly, Walters has charted an artistic path that mirrors her exploration of liminal spaces. After studying at Chelsea College in London and Newcastle University in Australia, she deepened her practice at the Byron School of Art in Northern New South Wales. Now based in Newcastle, her art reflects both the landscapes she has lived in and those she dreams into being.

Walters has exhibited in solo shows across Australia and internationally, and her paintings have earned her recognition as a finalist in prestigious art prizes, including the Glover Prize. Through her works, she reveals not just landscapes but the emotional undercurrents that shape them. “Painting for me is less about capturing a scene and more about expressing how that scene feels,” she explained in a recent interview with Meagan Dicks for Otomys Gallery in Melbourne. “I want viewers to sense the air, the energy, the emotion of a place.”

Works like King Tide, Undercurrent, and Interlude embody this approach, capturing the sea’s unpredictable moods. Walters describes her fascination with the ocean as a dialogue. “The ocean speaks to all of us in different ways. For me, it’s about change and constancy, the interplay of those forces. I try to translate that conversation into my paintings,” she told Dicks. The resulting canvases are alive with movement and emotion, inviting viewers into an intimate connection with the natural world.

Walters’ art is an act of excavation—not of physical landscapes, but of the spaces within and beyond them. “I’m drawn to places that feel like thresholds,” she reflected. “Those in-between moments where reality and memory, seen and unseen, start to blur.” This ethos resonates throughout her practice, turning each work into an evocative exploration of what lies beneath the surface, beckoning us to pause, to feel, and to imagine.