Studio Visit

Inside Meg Walter’s Lyrical Landscapes

Meg Walters‘ art practice is about discovering and documenting new and unexpected perspectives. She’s been slowly collecting them over her life, living, training and working in different locations around the world.

Now settled in Northern NSW, Meg’s painting practice reflects these experiences and settings she has absorbed over the years. Her landscapes are wild yet also soothing – emitting a sense of calm through perfectly constructed colour palettes.

Today we visit Meg in her rainforest-surrounded studio, to hear about her practice ahead of her new show, Yesterday’s Supernova, at Michael Reid.

Written
by
Sasha Gattermayr

Artist Meg Walters in her home studio, which is surrounded by five acres of rainforest! Photo – Michelle Eabry.

Left: Sound Structure. Right: Forgotten Horizon. Photos – courtesy of Michael Reid.

Left: Gravity’s Rainbow. Right: Sunflowers, Just Because.

Left: The First Autumn Salon. Right: Invincible Summer.

Left: Victory Over The Sun. Right: Windmill Marathon.

Left: Oscillating Quietly. Right: Florentine Evening.

Meg’s brushstrokes are strong but deliberate, placing lines and colours in perfect contrast. Photo – Michelle Eabry.

She creates scenery that is bold, but possessing a sense of delicacy. Photo – Michelle Eabry.

Writer
Sasha Gattermayr
5th of November 2020

Painter Meg Walters grew up in Bermuda, trained in London, and now lives in Northern NSW. And each location has informed a significant part of her artistic practice.

‘Growing up in several countries imbues you with multiple perspectives from a young age,’ she says. ‘You’re presented with not just one version of reality, but numerous, which leads to such a complex but rich understanding of life. Each place I’ve lived has offered me another identity, another heritage, another community and another group of family and friends.’

Formal study has also formed a large part of Meg’s artistic style. Originally graduating from Chelsea College of Art in London, she is now in her third year of study at the Byron School of Art in Byron Bay. This varied training, and time spent living in different places, gives her a unique  artistic perspective, and her practice is forever oscillating between themes of longing and displacement.

‘Some of my earliest memories revolve around nature and art and finding a way to marry the two,’ the artist explains of her fascination with place, and the attachment we have to belonging somewhere static. ‘I find that I’m always trying to get back to that ‘place’ and abandon all the years of social conditioning getting in the way. Most people strive forwards, but I do a lot of looking back, as a reference point, as an inspiration, as a driver for cathartic release.’

This blur between nature and creativity is at the nexus of Meg’s work. The wild elements represented in her seeping, dreamy landscapes bleed into each other: waterways, tree trunks, long grasses and skies. A repeated aquatic motif is played out in her composition, where she opts for organic, undulating lines, soft edges and warm, muted colours.

Though nature is the obvious catalyst for Meg’s painterly ruminations, her creative output is also heavily inspired by music. ‘I’ll even go so far as to curate entire playlists to elicit a specific mood when I’m in the studio,’ she says. ‘I find I paint differently depending on what I’m listening to, so that curation process is a large part of my creative play.’

Yesterday’s Supernova will be exhibited at Michael Reid from 5th-14th November. You can see more here.

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