Belinda Wilson

“The Earth was local crops and seasons, a kitchen garden that each day produced bread for the table, and olives and greens; it was dawn and sunset and age-old weather-rhymes: red sky at night, shepherd’s delight, red sky at morning, shepherd’s warning.”

David Malouf, The Happy Life (2011), p. 77

“When I first read the above verse in David Malouf’s The Happy Life, it immediately brought back memories of growing up in regional Victoria, dad baking bread in the kitchen, and the quiet wonder of watching the seasons shift and the colours change around us.

The well-known saying, “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning,” has echoed in my mind for as long as I can remember. It was something I often heard growing up, and it has stayed with me into adulthood. Even now, I find myself quietly reciting it when I witness the extraordinary palette of the sky at dawn and dusk, the soft lavenders and pale pinks that accompany the rising sun, and the deep oranges, fiery reds, and burnt sienna that signal the day’s end and hinting at the weather to come.

These moments speak to the cyclical rhythms of the natural world: the ever-changing seasons, the daily transitions from light to dark, and the subtle transformations that shape our sense of place. For me, they are gentle reminders that the landscape is never still, it breathes, evolves, and carries memory in every shift of light and weather.

In my current series Between Land and Sky, I explore the emotional and sensory connections we form with the natural world, particularly the landscapes of Victoria, which have long shaped my artistic practice. These works are not merely depictions of place, but meditations on how landscape becomes entwined with memory, identity, and belonging.

I return to paint familiar places, the Cathedral Ranges, the lakes near Geelong, Nagambie, the Yarra Valley, and Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens and aim not to document them literally, but to engage with the feelings they evoke, the histories they hold, and the way they root a sense of self. Through my work, I strive to capture the vast blue skies scattered with billowing clouds, the distant mountain ranges, and the subtle interplay of light and atmosphere that defines these landscapes.

Malouf’s writing speaks to the stillness found in the everyday and the extraordinary beauty of simply being present. His words accompany these paintings not as captions, but as quiet conversations, poetic echoes that invite you to experience the landscape not only as seen, but also as remembered and deeply felt. Each painting is paired with an excerpt from Malouf’s poetry, drawn from Earth Hour (2014) and An Open Book (2018). This series reflects those moments of quiet reflection, where the land meets the sky, and light and memory drift across the surface.”

Belinda Wilson, 2025

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