Leah Thiessen

I have a deep affinity for the land, it’s a place for immersion, to experience and be absorbed.

My work taps into the emotional gravity of a place, its memory, its pulse, its rawness and power. For me the paintings communicate a deep felt relationship with the earth, embodying a spirit of place and its atmosphere.

The images are a direct emotional response to the bush, beaches and mangroves that surround my home. My paintings explore unique ways of capturing the diversity of the natural terrain. I am interested in local flora, protected plant species, seaweeds and noxious plants. I often start my paintings with the small delicate details found in the bush and then depart to a place of frantic energy.

The course of painting is a primal impulse to mark. It is a physical and emotional experience. I paint in an expressive and gestural way capturing the force and energy of a place. I create a visceral experience through the use of mark making and the application of paint. My paintings are process driven and it is only through the act of painting over, scraping back and drawing into, that my work is resolved.

‘The sense of place…does indeed emerge from the senses. The land, and even the spirit of the place, can be experienced kinetically…as well as visually….a place can be felt as an extension of the body, especially the walking body, passing through and becoming part of the landscape’. Lucy Lippard