Lisa Chandler

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist

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

Lisa Chandler | Wallum Country I | 2023 | acrylic on canvas | 50.5 x 61cm

The Sunshine Coast’s wallum heathland is often overlooked and underappreciated. Yet First Nations people have cared for wallum Country for thousands of years, while more recently, the environmental activism of Kathleen McArthur, Judith Wright, and others, has led to the preservation of large tracts of this unique coastal ecosystem.

Over many years I have regularly walked in the wallum, getting to know its trees and wildflowers, and watching it change with the seasons. This work joyfully celebrates the profusion and diversity of wildflowers that populate this environment in spring. Through colour and gesture, I seek to portray this landscape as dynamic living Country, infused with memory and presence, and animated with a pulsing life force. My intention in foregrounding the wallum is that others might see it, value it and seek to preserve it.