Artist Statement

Jenny Blake

Acknowledgement of Country

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land and waters of the Weereewa (Lake George) region. I pay my respects to Elders past and present, and honour the enduring connection, knowledge and care that First Nations people have held for this Country for countless generations.

My paintings of Weereewa are made with a deep respect for this ancient landscape and its continuing cultural significance. I recognise that this is a living Country, carrying stories, memory and connection that extend far beyond my own experience of the place.

Weereewa (Lake George) has been a constant muse for me. With the many dramatic changes across time. Rather than depicting the landscape as static, I have approached it as a living system in constant transformation. Its surface can stretch to the horizon or recede into cracked earth, while the light moves through pale silvers, heavy ochres, and fractured storms.  I translate these shifts through layered, translucent washes and thicker, dragged passages that allow earlier marks to remain visible. Colour is built slowly, so each layer holds the memory of those beneath it, creating surfaces that feel both precise and ambiguous.

The paintings follow the lake through its seasonal rhythms. Some respond to the foggy winter months, when water and sky press together. Others trace the recession of water in spring and summer, when the dry earth emerges, and light becomes sharper. Smaller works capture fleeting moments of transition, and the many faces Weereewa presents.

Many canvases began on site and continued in the studio, evolving alongside memory and observation. This movement between direct experience and sustained reflection mirrors the lake’s own undulation. The resulting paintings hold both the immediacy of a single day and the accumulation of many visits.

By following Weereewa’s seasons, I have sought to make visible the quiet persistence of transformation.  The exhibition invites viewers to spend time with these shifting states and notice how the same stretch of land can feel infinite one moment and intimate the next.

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