Bronte Leighton-Dore on Painting What a Place Feels Like

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What ideas or starting points are shaping the work you’re presenting at Aotearoa Art Fair this year?

For this suite of work the paintings are inspired by time spent at two locations. The hills and grasslands of Wirdajuri Country in Cowra and the subtropical rainforest of the Dharawal people in Stanwell Tops. My practice is grounded in returning to the landscape. Both these places I have been lucky enough to spend time painting in over the last few years. I bring my paints and paper and engage with the landscape plein air. It becomes a kind of communion, both with the environment and with myself. I’m interested in the simple, intuitive process of looking and responding, of building an image from disparate parts.

Your paintings often hover between figuration and abstraction, with light and texture evoking the Australian landscape rather than describing it. What draws you to that in‑between space?

This style of making came about by accident. I was reaching to explore the colours, shapes, textures in front of me in the landscape. It was a spontaneous moment of play. Very much focused on the practice of ‘look and put’. I was being very mindful of the placement and slowly building up the picture. I think this way of working flowed out of my drawing practice where there is also a white background working with a concentration of lines of light and dark.

Another aspect is attempting to capture an essence of something. Not quite what it looks like in a camera but how it feels or how we perceive it through our bodies and vision, our lived perceptual field. We can see what something looks like as a whole, and in the process of reaching to express what’s being seen, something completely different can be created or formed. Exposing a gap between what is seen and what is rendered. I’m interested in what happens in that space. Predominantly in reference to the landscape as it contains many abstracted organic forms.

You’re presenting with Martin Browne Contemporary within an Aotearoa context, how do you think about your work sitting within that space?

Martin, my gallerist recently purchased one of my landscape paintings to live in situ at his home just outside of Auckland. For him I believe the work resonated with the landscape near or around his home and he was eager to connect the inside with the outside, his felt experience of the place.

While a work can be painted based on the engagement with a specific location I’m further understanding how the work comes to life in the imagination and the mind of the audience. Generally connecting back to their own lived experience and memories within the landscape. I hope presenting at Aotearoa can offer the work and people an opportunity for a dialogue around their personal memories and landscapes.

When you’re not in the studio, what keeps you inspired or recharged? Are there particular routines or escapes that feed back into your art?

Outside of the studio I’m very interested in examining my lived experience of life. Continuing to learn different ways to engage with it and myself to create more fulfilling outcomes. At the moment I’m interested in Carl Jung and his dream analysis of symbols. Along with a continued interest in mindfulness practices such as journaling, meditating and gardening. I enjoy the comforts of home but also the excitement of leaving the city for somewhere more green, or closer to the ocean. For the past few years I’ve been going on regular trips to Austinmer on the NSW South Coast. There have also been a multitude of residencies that I’ve either been invited to or organised. For the Aotearoa Art Fair since I’ve planned to come I’ll be visiting the town of Raglan and spending some time there before the Fair to recharge.

Is there something about being part of the Aotearoa Art Fair you especially look forward to?

I’m looking forward to being able to come this year. I’ve shown work with the Aotearoa Art Fair before and was unable to make it. I heard the work really resonated with audiences so it’s lovely to have this opportunity again and be able to be there to meet people, galleries and see the other artworks!