Annika Romeyn combines watercolour, drawing and printmaking processes to create grand yet intricate multi-panelled works on paper. Within these works she converts landscapes into immersive environments, drenched in symbolic colour and inviting deep reflection.
Annika Romeyn, Old Mutawintji Gorge, 2023, watercolour monotype on paper, 168 × 228cm. Courtesy the artist and Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
Romeyn’s latest exhibition, In Return, features landscapes of deep reds and burnt sienna, with dark rusty scrubland and dusty pink creeks, observed during her time spent camping in the Mutawintji National Park, north-east of Broken Hill, New South Wales, as the recipient of the 2022 Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Open Cut commission. Revisiting these sites in 2023, Romeyn’s recent works deepen and expand her ongoing engagement with the Park and the transformative experience of entering the Old Mutawintji Gorge.
The artist shares, “I hope my work conveys something of the experience of walking into the Gorge. Passing between weathered walls of rock rising up beside the dry creek-bed, I saw sky and earth converge and reflect in vital pools of water. As I moved inwards, towards a larger waterhole, I also approached an internal space and state of stillness, reflection, and contemplation.”
Annika Romeyn in her studio. Photograph: Sammy Hawker. Courtesy the artist and Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
Romeyn’s subject matter draws on her explorations of the natural world, yet the artist employs a monochromatic palette in her works that convey emotion and introspection. Romeyn works from her Canberra studio, using artistic processes that include monotypes and large multi-panel drawings: “I work predominantly with watercolour monotypes, which is a technique in between painting and printmaking. So I paint watercolour onto a plastic plate and transfer it onto paper.” She continues: “This work comes out of my broader practice, bringing together my love of being in nature, particularly walking in the landscape and the coastal environment and then drawing and printmaking as a way of connecting and revisiting that place from my studio back in Canberra.”
In Return operates in striking contrast to her 2022 show, Turbulence, which revealed swirling washes of an aquatic blue palette capturing the sea, sky and rugged coastal outcrops. For Romeyn, these works and her earlier Endurance series from 2019 captured a treasured spot on the South Coast, Guerilla Bay. “A beautiful and powerful place that evokes memories of meaningful time spent with my immediate family in the last summer of my mother’s life. This body of work has seen me plumb the depths of the colour blue, referencing its relationship to emotion and distance,” says the artist.
With a busy year in place, the artist is set to showcase her artworks at Canberra Contemporary Art Space later in 2024, followed by another fieldwork trip funded by the Mandy Martin Art and Environment Award. With a new expedition on the horizon, Romeyn continues in her exploration of sites of natural inspiration interwoven with internal states of mind, offering a visual, contemplative journey that her audience is intrigued to follow.
In Return is on view at Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, from 14 May to 1 June 2024, featuring a series of large-scale drawings, ghost prints and watercolour monotypes.
Annika Romeyn is represented by Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
