Amaya Iturri

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2024 - Finalist

_{[Image courtesy of the artist]}

Artist Statement

When working in my latest series of paintings about suburbia and the expansion of cities, I was amazed about the number of trees we are willing to give up in this process. Since then and in an organic way I have been more appreciative about trees and find myself investigating more and more about the interconnection of trees and the fungi in gardens, parks, national parks, and old forest. 

These paintings are a series reflecting a personal connection, respect and love for the old friend that has been able to stand the passing of time. It is a body of work that appeals for awareness and a bigger effort for conservation of all tree ecosystems. 

Autumn in the Old Forest is a painting of a forest I visited since my childhood in the Basque Country, luckily unchanged, that gives the visitor a sense of time and place.