FOCUS ON: Paige Northwood, 'searching', 2020

There is urgency within Paige Northwood's 'searching', 2020. Dynamic forms surge up towards the sky, as if sweeping energy upward. Hands have been applied to the work's surface, drawn back time and time again as if shaping a sacred message transmitted through the body. Reaching out, searching, for something more, for the very earth that binds the work together. We throw our hands up toward the sky in elation, for freedom, for a better future for all. Fire moves in an upward motion too, and it burns within every one of us, igniting our outer voices while we stoke our internal flames; whispering perpetual promises to the earth.

Paige Northwood is an Australian artist who paints abstract landscapes with elements from the earth in order to move through experiences, her emotions, and the world. 'searching' is a part of the artist's latest body of work Love and Fear. Delving into the felt frequencies within Northwood's own body of love and fear in response to the recent east coast bushfires and the global pandemic, the works look to universal feelings of uncertainty/anxiety versus compassion/empathy, and asks what is needed in order to heal and prevail; together. Collectively, the paintings are a spiritual pursuit inward as well as outward exploration of the diverse Australian landscape. 

'searching' sees a darkness of burgundy, black and brown permeated by the light creams and whites of repetitive marks made by the hands of the artist. Textural marks rise up from the board, push upward, or forward, as if urging change creating a mantra of hope in orchre and soil. "I make ochres for my paintings. I guess this process was a transition from sculptural clay works but still wanting to touch the earth in a different manner," explains Northwood, "I collect pigment from the environment I find myself in and mix in a binder. The process is a lot about stimulating the senses. Covering the body with clay reminds the body to feel and reminds the body it is alive." The grounding properties of clay give way to a harmonious coming together of found materials, collected from the land for safekeeping.