Lindy Sale

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Christine Hall, Myphotomotion.

Lindy Sale | Forest Sounds | 2023 | watercolour and gouache on paper | 96.5 x 122.5cm (framed)

My work reflects my interest in landscape, the effect of the natural environment on the psyche, and how this can be expressed in paint. I live near a re-growing forest within which life abounds. The beauty of the forest engenders a calmness for reflection, but this is alongside a tension. This tension comes partly from the awareness of one’s own vulnerability in nature and partly from the evidence of the historic human impact on the forest in the cut or ring-barked stumps of huge trees. As a painter who would normally use oil or acrylic paint, I was interested to work in watercolour on a larger scale. I found my inclination was to use short gestures which allowed strong colour saturation from the brush with gaps between each mark. The resulting effect enhanced the sense of sunlight shining through forest foliage.