The Edge of Autumn

Winner of the Henry Jones Art Prize for 2025, Zoë Fitzherbert paints abstract landscapes that carry reflections of place, atmosphere and memory. Her layered compositions trace the changing weather, colour and contours that shape how a landscape is felt and remembered, rather than seen. 

A former architect, Zoë’s practice brings together instinct and precision: swathes of shifting, emotive colour layered with fine, map-like linework inspired by the cartographic conventions of her great-grandfather. 

Raised in the misted hills of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Zoë now paints from her studio overlooking nipaluna/Hobart.

“Driving home from Cradle Mountain in late spring, my route twisted down the steep slopes in a wash of colour.  Shockingly beautiful glimpses of the ranges came and went, receding in crags of blue and brown;  the foreground held a deep, inky green.  Even the sky felt full of colour.

Back in the studio, I started sketching and mixing from memory, guided only by the impressions that remained.  Cethana I and Cethana II are the result of this journey.

Alongside these works, I developed a large autumnal diptych, capturing the view from my studio.  When the Air Turns reflects a landscape I am fortunate to encounter daily, and yet it is never the same.  At this time of year, looking out over the hills, I can smell the seasonal shift in the air before I even step outside.  There is a melancholy beauty to this season;  a quiet stirring that revives memories of all autumns that have come before.”