Dianne Smith

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist

Dianne Smith | The quiet influence of small moments | 2025 | oil on canvas | 76 x 91cm

The delicate ecosystem in the Bells Creek area inspired my painting. Home to plants, birds and insects as well as the protected tiny swamp crayfish. Foliage floating downstream collecting particles becomes a part of their food chain.

There is a quiet silence in these spaces where boundaries dissolve with the meeting of light and water, movement and stillness, clarity and obscurity. In these spaces, plants blur and merge with sunlight, reflections and shadows creating a sense of ambiguity.

I like to explore the interplay of colour, movement, patterns and forms to reflect the beauty in these transient moments which can often go unnoticed.