During a residency in Collemacchia, Italy, Wangaratta-based artist Marie Salinger undertook daily contemplative walks through the Abruzzo National Park. These walks inspired a series of drawings, prints, and paintings created using foraged natural materials alongside impressions of the land’s contours. The freedom to work without expectation profoundly shaped her practice, which contemplates deeply personal places where joy and grief coexist. Building on this experience, Salinger’s new works continue to investigate light, shadow, and liminal space while responding to local landscapes. Her layered mixed-media works combine monoprints with textured acrylic painted surfaces scraped back to reveal what lies beneath.
In these works Salinger turns toward the unseen forces that shape both landscape and the human heart. The title recalls the ancient idea of Aether, a subtle, luminous medium that binds earth and sky. In Salinger’s hands, it becomes a metaphor for the invisible currents through which memory, creativity and healing move.
Marie Salinger, May Fly, 2024, acrylic paint and pigmented ink on canvas, 200cm x 200cm. Photo Jeremy Weihruach.
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