Astrid Dahl

Astrid Dahl

b. 1944, Australia 

Astrid's work is deeply involved with topography and geology, but not in the traditional sense of categorization, pinning down or boxing-in. Her work goes beyond the visual, capturing the deeply spiritual nature of the land, with its memorialized seas and shifting archaic tides. She uses the layering of textures, pattern making and earth colours as a way of mapping the contextual strata of the landscape, both ancient and historical. At the same time, there is a rhythm distinct to each work that extends beyond the flat plain of the canvas and becomes part of its environment.  

"Physical inspiration for my works, are taken from deserts in the US (Nevada), India (Rajasthan) Africa, (Namibia, Morocco, Senegal), The Little Desert, in W.A and the vast expanse of the Nullarbor Plains that stretches between South Australia and Western Australia. The human-being is not represented in my work, but I acknowledge human existence through my own endeavours, painting the visible and the invisible. Each painting is arrived at through a unique unpredictable random process as I present individual crystallized thoughts based on landscaped memory. I respond to that moment in time when life’s energy pushes forward through the communal well of experiences. Although each work is not inextricably bound to the last, certain elements link them together besides paint application, colour, and texture. Another less obvious, intrinsic element is the importance of nature to me. Nature gives us humanity, a sense of belonging through natural history and a global view that is greater than human endeavour. Being part of that ‘life force’; the “macro” and the microscopic elements, we all walk this ancient earth on that delicately balanced line between good and evil, lightness and darkness. I try to tread lightly."