'Cindering Sun' — Hannah Nowlan

Artist Statement

Painting has long been at the centre of my practice. This year I’ve begun exploring scent-making, a new and experimental thread that has reignited my work with fresh energies and colour palettes since taking ownership of sensory wellness label Nunchi Oils. The two practices now move in dialogue: painting and scent forming a shared language of gesture, feeling, memory, atmosphere, and place, both inspired by local landscape.

Much like painting with transparent oil glazes, blending perfume oils is an alchemy of layering and intuition: colours become notes, textures become accords, memory becomes material. Together, these practices allow me to distil the shifting spirit of landscape into sensory traces that linger beyond the canvas, felt through the whole body.

Theme: SOLAR

In SOLAR, I trace the shifting presence of light across the land — those golden moments that linger, shimmer, or dissolve. A living, shifting presence within the landscape — not just something we see, but something we feel. These paintings capture the feeling of light rather than its form, allowing colour and gesture to echo long summer days. A pause in brightness; an invitation to feel alive and solar-powered.

— Hannah Nowlan, living in Black Rock, working in Red Hill, Victoria