Stephanie Tabram: Lessons from the Land

Working in her studio in the heart of New Norfolk, overlooking the Derwent Valley, Stephanie Tabram’s paintings speak of the Tasmanian landscape. Her images – though still, private, almost lonely – are pregnant with suspense. Tabram lets us linger in the last of the golden light on the dry grass before the clouds roll over – next in the thick air of those swelling clouds the moment just before the storm breaks – and then in the silence of the empty highway, silver with the recent rain and lined with puddles as still as glass.

“A sweeping wash of pigment initiates each proposition, holding breadth and depth in a field of potential. Over hours and days and weeks, the artist works from the horizon up and over to the sky, and down and into the foreground. Methodical and measured, the layers intensify with each pass, bringing forth highlights, and pushing back shadows – reality emerging. In bringing each image into the light, Tabram walks a fine line between two states of being – an active articulation of the outer world, and a quiet internal meditation.” – excerpt from catalogue essay by Jane Deeth, 2023

Stephanie Tabram, On Hollow Tree Road, 2023, acrylic on linen, 137 × 152cm (stretcher size). Courtesy the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart

Stephanie Tabram, Ewe with Ram, 2023, acrylic on linen, 77 × 122cm (stretcher size). Courtesy the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart

Bett Gallery
29 September to 21 October 2023
Tasmania

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