Susan Schmidt

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2026 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Mark Lutz, Art House Reproductions.

Susan Schmidt | Wind kissed | 2024 | charcoal, acrylic and oil on canvas | 122 x 122cm

‘Wind Kissed’ is a work created in response to the grief of losing my partner and the surrender of self that followed.

In my search for identity and solace in nature, I found the mangrove a muse and metaphor for my unfamiliar, inner landscape.

Here, submerged at high tide, it mirrors overwhelming emotion. Secret and guarded in surface truth – until grief arrives on a shiver of wind and the reflected images of certainty are fractured.  The surface is broken, and a doorway to a deeper current of presence opened.

Layers of acrylic and oil rubbed back in acts of quiet destruction, reveal glimpses of what lies beneath.  The under-painted pink glow symbolises love and connection, and the dissolved edges invite introspection.

‘Wind Kissed’ holds this moment of undoing… the heart stirred and awakened.