Little Wide Open

The works in this exhibition are drawn in close; instead of sweeping vistas and endless horizons, the narrow field of view abstracts the natural environment they have sought out to paint.

Both artists share a commitment to working from life and painting en plein air, responding to the immediacy of being in a place, though each arrives there by a different path.

For Kate, spending time in the landscape is essential: sitting still, observing and feeling the energy of a place, then using buttery oil paint to capture its colour palette and natural history. A practising artist for over 20 years, she has an extensive exhibition history. This year, expeditions and residencies on Flinders Island, Tasmania, and at the Tweed Regional Gallery have brought new landscapes into her practice, and early works from both form part of this exhibition. Kate won the major prize in the 2025 Queen's Wharf Brisbane Art Prize and the 2023 Facets Fairholme Open Art Prize, and has been a finalist in the Lethbridge Landscape Prize, the Lethbridge Small-Scale Art Award and the Clayton Utz Art Award. Her work is held in private collections throughout Australia.

Dylan's works vary in subject matter and medium but are grounded in a continual process of trial, failure and discovery. Drawing on art history, but more so on everyday life, he works from memory, from models in a studio environment and outdoors, in the landscape. Once painting begins, he lets intuition, accident and immediacy guide the work, so his paintings evolve from feeling rather than thinking. While best known for his figurative work, Dylan brings the same approach to the landscape paintings in this exhibition. He won the Queensland Figurative Prize in 2024 and placed second in 2026. He was highly commended in the 2024 Lester Prize for Portraiture, was a finalist in the 2026 Percival Portrait Painting Prize and the 2025 Defiance Award, and has been a finalist five times in the Brisbane Portrait Prize.