Words by Laura Jones
‘Private Guests Only’ is an unusual but snug pairing of desert and island landscape paintings from Ondine Seabrook’s recent trips to opposite ends of New South Wales. On two separate journeys with artist friends, Seabrook collected imagery like souvenirs from the far western Mad Max plains of Broken Hill, and Lord Howe Island- a tiny crescent shaped paradise 600 kilometres east of Port Macquarie.
At a time when travel was repeatedly restricted by state border closures, Seabrook explored the diversity and beauty of these locations, noting that the similarity between them ended with their remoteness. Contrasting the deep reds and yellow ochres of the desert with the cool emerald palette of the island, Seabrook has connected these places with her unique ability to convey emotion through paint. Colour and gesture are crucial parts of Seabrook’s practice and she knows that wielding them with subtlety can directly and instantly “make us feel”.
The small desert works made en plein air are a direct response to the heady and evocative experience of colour she met while away. Road-tripping with fellow painters Holly Greenwood and Bronte Leighton-Dore, the artists all experienced the intensity of working outside and dealing with the challenges of harsh and changing light, relentless flies, palettes drying too quickly in the heat, then the coldest wind and rain Broken Hill had seen in years. Onnie, as she is affectionately known, left her purple paint in Sydney, but luckily Holly had some. These little memories are etched into the work and allude to the precious and ephemeral nature of time spent together with friends.
Similarly, the Lord Howe Island works have a dreamy, yet carefully considered quality, representing a special time in Seabrook’s life. Most of these works were made in the studio, with the beauty of subjective memory coming into play. This trip was made with a different intent - as a holiday - and Seabrook approached the work by exploring the way we look back on time through the lens of emotion. She loses some of the literal image of the place, but adds something else; something she says is “maybe even a bit made up and unrealistic… Romanticised in our memories, sentimental, nostalgic. Somewhere in-between happy and sad. Bittersweet.”
Both the plein air and studio paintings capture Seabrook’s intimate experience of being in the landscape. These paintings are gestures shared with us and they are personal. We are invited as Private Guests Only, to share in this experience of being alive and being here on this planet right now.
‘Private Guests Only’ is Ondine Seabrook's third solo exhibition with China Heights, and she has participated in three group shows since 2017.