Temporal Landscapes series

This series of temporal landscapes maps the shifting terrain between memory and the present. Through meticulously hand-cut, folded forms, soft hues and shadow play create living patterns that echo the contours of life’s journey. Each work holds a dialogue between the seen and the felt, charting fleeting yet enduring moments in time and place.

here : now

62 x 86 x 4cm 2024 Etching inks and gouache on paper

“Etched in the ink of mellifluous shapes, here:now captures the essence of time and place, each formation testament to moments both fleeting and eternal. Hand cut paper foldouts meticulously connected, one after another; with soft hues and shadows vibrating across the surface, form its own patterned shapes – soft and alive.

Relief lines symbolising the contours of life’s journey, show connections and disconnections, as they undulate through the vicissitudes of temporal landscape. In the delicate interplay of these elements, here:now creates a dialogue between the visible world and depths of memory; inviting us to explore the truths behind our every-shifting terrain of our lived experience.”

here:now was exhibited in Royal Perth landscape Prize 2024 and received a Highly Commended.

  sutra offers various compositions to suit.

sutra

187 x 174 x 4cm [overall]  61 x 86 x 4cm [each frame] 2023 Gouache and etching inks on paper

Borrowing from Sanskrit, sutra holds within its meaning the idea of a ‘sacred thread’. Central to the six-framed sutra by Sarah Thornton-Smith is the idea of interconnectedness of all living entities and the importance of balance and harmony in the natural world. Visual threads formed by patterned motifs comprising of a myriad hand cuts and folds with sequences of colourwaves where gradated tones of gouache are rendered, move lyrically, connecting frame to frame. These directional foldouts pull the viewer into an intimate moment, vacillating side to side to experience the shimmering change of colours. These mellifluous motifs thread across visually organic indentations and stark monoprinted thallus-lichen shapes to evoke an intimately visceral landscape which celebrates and portrays the interconnectedness we have with our environment and how like lichens, we are symbiotic partners in this world. sutra is a work which quietly observes the terrestrial passing of time and how as agents of change, we can each play a part to enable a brighter future for us, and our children.

sutra was exhibited as part of the Bunbury Biennale 2023 at Bunbury Regional Gallery.