Acrylic and paint marker on panel, antique chair, 88 x 53 x 29 cm.

Anastasia Parmson turns simple line drawing into sculptural pieces and installations of domestic interiors. She is passionate about expanding drawing as a medium beyond its conventionally two-dimensional format.

In her work, everything comes down to the line — the most basic form of any drawing. Parmson uses paint markers on pure white panels and various found objects to trace wobbly lines along the edges; to outline the shapes and the borders between shadow and light.

Anastasia Parmson’s work playfully challenges our perception and questions the limits between two- and three-dimensional pieces. We are not always sure what we are looking at, what is “real” and how it is created. Is this a real chair or is it a drawing of a chair? Is it an artwork of a functional piece of furniture?

Anastasia’s work is filled with personal stories and intricate details, but she prefers to blank out more than she reveals, to remove pre-conceived notions and thus leave space for the viewer to read their own stories between the lines.

Pencil and watercolour monotype on paper, 112 x 152 cm

Centred on the experience of entering Old Mutawintji Gorge, River Red Gum (Mutawintji) recalls focused time in Mutawintji National Park on Barkindji and Malyangapa Country, as part of the 2022 Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Open Cut Commission. As a first-time visitor to the area, Annika was grateful for the opportunity to walk with and learn from Wiimpatja, Traditional Owners and Custodians, whose deep knowledge and connection to Country enriched her appreciation for the significance and power of the place. Annika witnessed the scarcity and value of water in the environment, listened to stories of dramatic changes over years and seasons, and observed traces of past floods along the dry creek-beds leading into each Gorge.

Carefully rendered in carbon pencil, this River Red Gum and flood debris are layered over a dusty pink watercolour monotype, which by chance, captured haphazard beading effects and traces of finger marks – Annika’s own and others who may have handled the plastic printmaking plate before her. Usually a routine process of ‘degreasing’ would aim to remove these marks before painting on the plate, but, in this case, Annika decided to work with the beading, which was evocative of the initial beading of rain on dry earth. Likewise, the subtle vertical finger marks in the top right section reminded Annika vaguely of tree trunks, as well as the long human presence and history intrinsic to the landscape of Mutawintji.

Represented by Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

Charcoal and pencil on paper, 65 x 24 cm.

O’Donnell’s suburban-focused practice captures the essence of urban aesthetics that shape our daily lives. Through her drawings, she uncovers the humanity, history, and politics of these familiar places by highlighting architectural details often overlooked. By isolating and representing the structure of modest buildings with minimalism, O’Donnell explores their compositional potential and underlying symmetry. Her aim is to offer a fresh perspective on these landscapes, inviting viewers to see beyond the ordinary and discover the aesthetic poetry embedded within these familiar spaces. This encourages imaginative revisiting and appreciation of these suburban landscapes.

Represented by Dominik Mersch Gallery

Watercolour and pen on paper, 50 x 100 cm.

Textures of Time: Grampians #1 uses a combination of watercolour and pen to capture the interplay of light and form, and to reveal the subtle shifts, textures, and layers of time in the landscape. The act of drawing allows the subtle movements and details in the landscape to reveal themselves, creating a matrix that invites the audience to explore. It offers a point of contemplation of their own memories and connection with the landscape. The artwork not only captures the present moment but also bridges temporal scales, connecting the contemporary with the deep past, fusing artistic expression with geological exploration. It’s a unique exploration of the intersection of art and nature, inviting viewers to explore their personal relationship with the landscape.

Digital drawing, 53 x 39 cm.

This large half arch window, one of the prime attractions to the flat when it was purchased, is this cat’s favourite place in the world. He spends most sunny days here, sleeping and basking in the sunshine.

Afternoon Sun is an exploration of the elements that make up the view out of our favourite windows, and more broadly, the view from the modern home. As younger generations move away from the 3 or 4 bedroom homes with gardens that were within reach of our parents, but not us, our views shift. We no longer expect a view outside of a fence and a hills hoist, maybe the roof of our neighbour’s house, but instead we see the plants lining our windows that make up the indoor garden, looking out at our neighbouring apartment blocks.

Digitally drawn, with over 15 layers of coloured pencil brushes, this work is designed to invoke nostalgia for the colouring in we did as children, softened and blurry at the edges, just like the memories of the favourite corners of our homes.

Mixed media on Arches paper, 70 x 52 cm.

This work is sourced from images from the littoral zone inner urban banks of the Brisbane River. The artist describes the littoral zone as where land and water embrace. Here can be found mangroves sending out breathing roots to access oxygen when the tides come in. The visual rhythms of woven mangrove roots and the fluctuations of movement within the water encapsulate consistently changing elemental interactions.

Coloured pencil on paper, 150 x 100 cm.

This artwork was made by drawing ruled lines on paper. Using 100 different coloured pencils, the pencils were ordered in a sequence and repeated in a loop until the drawing was complete. The triangle composition of the work was decided by chance, rather than control. Before starting this drawing, each pencil was sharpened to a fine point and then not resharpened throughout the making process. While working from left to right, the pencils became progressively blunt, becoming difficult to control and leaving thicker lines with blurred edges. These small material qualities become central to the way the artwork operates when viewing in person.

When making artworks, Kate Vassallo’s focus is setting the scene for something to happen in the studio. Using rules and parameters, she develops fully fleshed out “systems” of materially focused steps. Usually highly repetitious, these processes slowly unfold over time. Operating with discipline and concentration in the studio, this structured approach is visually echoed in the formal geometric shapes and straight lines of her artworks. While much of this working methodology is preplanned and formulated, Vassallo always leaves space for agency, intuition and chance to enter the fold.

Represented by Artereal Gallery

Ink, charcoal and graphite on paper, 100 x 50 cm.

Kim Anderson is fascinated by the physical manifestation of a psyche in turmoil, and the ever-shifting relationship between our inner and outer worlds. Much of her work involves a deeply personal psychological scrutiny in order to confront the more difficult aspects of human experience.

Two years ago, Anderson ruptured a tendon in her drawing hand, which resulted in surgery to perform a tendon graft, six weeks in a splint, and many months of rehabilitation. This forced hiatus from drawing – essentially her lifeline – had a profound impact upon her mental health. Intensified by the anxious, tumultuous times we live in, it felt like the bottom had dropped out of her existence, leaving her adrift.

While she was healing physically, Anderson felt as though she had experienced a mental rupture, far less visible and impossible to explain to others. Her recovery was a time of deep introspection – and interrogation – into her practice, a time of tearing herself apart and putting herself back together. Rupture, Rapture was made as Anderson was slowly finding her way back into drawing and trying to regain her confidence. Originally a whole figure, frustration with the result led to it being cut in half, giving the image a power it had not had previously. Throughout this process, Anderson began to see a rupture as an opening, a space for something new to emerge.

Represented by Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

Charcoal on paper, 60 x 115 cm.

Threatened
Rock holes Perennial springs Episodic lakes Artesian lakes Ground water
Extractive industry Intensive food production Coal seam gas Cotton Deforestation
Pervasive Exploited Diminishing
Flash droughts ‘Thirsty air’
For severe dehydration, start IV fluids immediately.

Blackboard paint, acrylic, charcoal, pastel on canvas, 90 x 200 cm.

This large drawing was made in the artist’s studio after time spent walking and drawing. Melinda Hunt’s performative drawing practice involves walking through landscapes of personal significance while drawing. She uses a harness to support a large board so both hands are free to draw, usually working at night to avoid unwanted attention. Melinda also documents her walks using a backward-facing video camera that captures where she has been. These recordings are also drawings.

Melinda’s walking drawings are a kind of kinaesthetic seismograph, documenting not just what is seen and heard, but what is sensed and felt, and the action of her body moving through space. While walking and drawing she is exploring her connections to the places where she walks, wandering without a pre-planned route through the visible landscape and the invisible landscape of memory. When the visible and invisible combine, an ‘atmosphere’ is generated and recorded. In this case, the artist has walked through Sydney’s Inner West. The drawing reflects the atmosphere of Enmore Road at night, a ‘felt-landscape’, a map-like record of associated sentiments.

Archival giclee print, edition 2/9, 140 x 190 cm.

This work, Oceanic Metropolis, is a combination of ideas about a vibrant futuristic aquatic city. It is pure escapism in every sense of the word. The genre, Solarpunk, can be applied to this extremely detailed work, with visions of humans, animals, and botanicals all living together in one place. It invites the viewer to dive into depths of detail and abstraction and to look really closely and discover hidden narratives.

Oceanic Metropolis depicts a huge variety of things to discover. Woven from botanical flying whales, thousands of fish, flying machines, and interesting structures, the world seamlessly ties together, elements ebbing and flowing in a sky ocean.

Paul works primarily on laptops, phones, and tablets to make his digital works. Oceanic Metropolis is a vector artwork that was created in Adobe Illustrator using the pencil tool and several layers. Being able to draw directly on the laptop screen and pinch-zooming into small areas to work on details, Paul is able to create super fine detailed areas while still being able to view the work as a whole. This work took over 2000 hours to finish and became a daily ritual which was often a meditative experience.

Single channel video, 273 min.

Emma Fielden’s Andromeda and the Milky Way delves into the poetic dance of two galaxies destined to merge. This performance drawing manifests the cosmic interplay between magnitude and intimacy, sketching a celestial narrative where the grandeur of galaxies is contrasted by the intimacy of human connection.

With two performers dressed in ink-black against a luminous white paper background, this work translates a timeless choreography of celestial bodies into a visual narrative. Each orbit, rendered in charcoal, tells a story of attraction, longing, and the uncertainty of union. Just as galaxies move with grace, magnitude, and an unfathomable sense of purpose, these performers traverse the paper, their motions drawing out tales of desires and near-misses, connection and divergence.

This work is as much a reflection on human nature as it is an ode to the cosmos. The paradox of these two galaxies’ imminent convergence, without a single star or planet collision, mirrors our own human experiences – the yearning to connect, the orbits of relationships, and the often elusive nature of genuine connection.

As a moving image, this piece is a dynamic exploration of drawing itself, challenging our perceptions of scale from the grandeur of galaxies to the intimacy of a charcoal line, showcasing drawing as both a medium and a performance.

Andromeda and the Milky Way beckons its viewers to contemplate their cosmic significance, to revel in the splendour of the ephemeral, and to discern the profound harmonies that emanate from every transient encounter.

Performers: Emma Fielden and Lizzie Thomson.
Videographer: Dara Gill.

Represented by Dominik Mersch Gallery.

Raffia, paper, wire, paint pen, eucalyptus wood found on Dharawal Country, string, 81 x 62 x 22 cm.

The morning after.
Australia spoke;
A resounding NO
echoes across Aboriginal Land.
No to Voice.
No to recognition.
They used theirs, the familiar one
Status quo stands - Colony in this Land
Shock, blame, and ‘yes’ to shame.
Friends, allies, now we rally.
Truth, strength, power. Survival.
Always was, Always will be.

The central motif of the Flying Fox, celebrates connection to place and community. Incorporating weaving techniques learnt from Elders on Country, Dr Keft, a Muruwarri woman, has created 3D woven forms that reference her connection to Culture through shared knowledge and challenge the viewers’ definition of the boundaries of drawing practice. Bending and weaving the line of raffia, the sculptural forms of the flying foxes create a tactile and immersive experience that envelopes the audience in Country and invites connection.

Utilising natural tannins and pigments from Eucalyptus leaves, seeds, and barks to draw onto paper, Dr Keft takes the material (paper) used by Australians to decide the fate of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and turns it into Country. The artist’s process involves collecting fallen leaves and then encasing them in rolled paper and exposing them to heat. Drawing into the hues and patterns that emerge on the paper - from clear, perfect imprints with sharp definition showing every line and leaf-vein, to abstract shadows and suggestions - the artist creates paper leaves that stand in as place holders of Country.

Flame worked borosilicate glass, electrodes, ionised inert gas,
electrical current, nylon thread, dimensions variable.

These meandering tendrils of neon light are contained within laboratory glass tubing. Schwarzrock generates transparent filaments that appear to have grown in a circulatory system. The aurora-like glow of the neon pulses with the viewer’s proximity. These paired forms reference circularity, circulation, and interconnectivity, with the luminous interior of the tangled lines brightening as the viewer comes into their field.

Represented by Suki & Hugh