“. . . capture those special interactions within the fabric of the landscape.”
“I have always liked small things,” Lani Westerman tells me about Pocket Views, the title that refers to both the size of the paintings and small ‘pocket views’ that are often depicted within the overall scene. “I collect miniatures which are contained in an old letterpress draw which is mounted vertically on the wall at home.”
This exhibition – the artist’s first – will present fifteen to twenty pieces in all; Westerman still working on it when we spoke. “I have never collated so many pieces before,” she says. “Whilst working as an architect I was producing as little as one piece a year prior to being granted the Anthea Polson Art Award at the Paddington Art Prize in 2023,” after which the artist shifted attention from architecture to painting.
Westerman’s understanding of architecture, specifically the design of buildings in plan, section and elevation, has directly influenced the composition of her art. “Growing up in Canberra (a planned city and also the bush capital) gave me a certain perspective on ‘framing’ the landscape,” Westerman explains. “An obvious example is how Parliament House and the War Memorial align with Mount Ainslie. The placement of these important buildings respond directly to the environment and in turn create a binding relationship between man-kind and nature – both symbolically and on an actual day-to-day basis.”
Lani Westerman, Clovelly Ocean Pool, 2024, acrylic on timber board, 30 × 30cm. Courtesy the artist and Anthea Polson Art
Lani Westerman, Ballast Point, 2024, acrylic on timber board, 20 × 20cm. Courtesy the artist and Anthea Polson Art
The “mathematical notion of the grid underlies almost all man-made forms,” Westerman says – some of her early works that show a more literal relationship between the grid and a meandering line. In these purely abstract pieces, only the colours really hint that the overall scene is ‘beach’ or ‘rolling hills.’ Now, the artist has developed a more site-specific style that incorporates the same notion. “It really comes down to soft/fluid lines vs hard/rigid shapes and how they overlap to capture the juxtaposition between organic natural forms vs hard-edge man-made elements in the landscape.”
The artist, in other words, believes in site-specific architecture and planning; that is, design that embraces and embodies its surroundings. “This aspiration guides me when I survey the landscape for painting sites,” Westerman says. “I want to capture those special interactions within the fabric of the landscape. It may be an architectural intervention, an ancient heritage element, a bridge, jetty, flag, buoy, boat, park furniture or beach towel.”
As a former Rushcutters Bay boy myself, having spent many summers in the locales of this show, and many after-the-office swims to decompress at its scenes, I too have long let my thoughts float on Australia’s architectural interventions in rugged bush and culture-shaping coastal settings; something these works stir in me . . . a stirring the artist seems to both share and invite. “I find making art that is site-specific more grounding than purely abstract work,” Westerman says. “I also love that others can relate to a particular scene and it becomes a shared experience.”
Lani Westerman, Rushcutters Bay Three, 2024, acrylic on timber board, 20 × 20cm. Courtesy the artist and Anthea Polson Art
Lani Westerman, The Edge (Wylie’s Baths, Sydney), 2024, acrylic on timber board, 30.5 × 22.5cm. Courtesy the artist and Anthea Polson Art
As to what the artist herself sees in the Sydney Harbour and its surrounding beaches scenes, where the colours are bright and every space is entirely unique, Westerman tells me: “The spaces where the natural and man-made environment intersect create an interesting juxtaposition. Although actual figures are not depicted, it is the inclusion of man-made elements that provide scale and imply human activity.” The artist striving “to capture the essence and individuality of a place.”
Here, it’s “the monumentality of the ocean or other natural feature with elements that represent human leisure and everyday life” that draws the artist, and us, in: “like the transient rickety timber structure that towers over the rock formations and sea pool below at Wylie’s Baths or the walls at Ballast Point that frame the trees, lawn and rocks.”
Dr Joseph Brennan is a Lambda Literary Award-nominated author based in Tropical North Queensland.
Anthea Polson Art
22 March to 6 April 2025
Queensland
Originally published in print – Art Almanac, March 2025 issue, pp. 20–22
