Muddy Water

Following the debut of Unfolding at Perth Council House Gallery, WA, Muddy Water is Carly Le Cerf’s first solo exhibition at Michael Reid Southern Highlands. Muddy Water is an epic painterly tribute to the Pilbara, capturing its breathtaking topography with dynamic gestural forms, textural details and vivid earth tones.

“Arranging elements within each panel guides the eye, conveying a sense of vastness,” says Le Cerf, who begins each work by immersing herself in the landscape and translating the emotions that arise. “My aim is to allow viewers to visually ‘walk through’ the landscape.”

The power of the artist’s paintings derives in part from her attention to materiality, which simultaneously evokes the environment’s granular, gritty detail while zooming out to convey its vast, heroic, elemental heft. “Using encaustic – a medium of beeswax, pigment and damar resin – adds tactile and sensory dimensions to my work,” says Le Cerf.

“I strive to not only replicate visuals but also evoke the emotional and sensory aspects of the landscape, exploring my relationship with it,” says the artist, who begins each series by immersing herself in the landscape, recording her time in the field with sketches and colour swatches that translate her emotional response. “My aim is to convey the awe I felt as the morning sun bathed the landscape.”

Muddy Water is on view in our top floor gallery at Michael Reid Southern Highlands until Tuesday, 25 June.