This body of work is my perspective on the changed landscape of my sea country. My father’s country on the East Coast of Cape York Peninsula. My aim is to raise awareness of the dramatic social and environmental changes that have taken place known as dispossession and climate change.
Being inspired by the patterns of nature and the energy, colours and the spaces within the land/seascapes I have so much to explore on the canvas and these creations is my way of dealing with what is going on in my world around me.
My father’s sea country is largely void of people now. We travel down as often as time and season’s permit and as I see another small sandhill disappear and a little less life on our large-scale reefs, I’m still in awe of the sheer beauty and in these works I’m capturing what is present.
When I manipulate the paint, I can’t help but be drawn by exotic tropical life, my culture that still holds the stories for the land and our vibrant, bold and captivating colours on the beaches of my father’s country.
Naomi Hobson lives, works in her hometown of Coen. It is a small township of 350 people, a remote community of Far North Queensland, 580 km north of Cairns, at the bottom of the McIIwraith ranges (part of the Great Dividing Range) surrounded by the east coast of cape York, rainforest and open country. Her family’s connection is to the lands around Coen and Lockhart River but also extend also to distant other communities in the whole Cape York (such as in Aurukun and Hopevale). Naomi finds her inspirations through all these connections to createdynamic and eye catching works. She is unreserved in her use of colour, the depth and variety of which always gives you something more to look at. Each painting tells of both her and her family’s social and political history, connecting her identity to that of the people who have come before her. Her work shows an abstract connection to this history and the land; colours of sunrises are recaptured on canvas, and the contours of the McIlwraith Range make recurring appearances in her paintings.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
NAOMI HOBSON
Naomi Hobson: ‘First Light On Frenchman Reef’ – SO4154 – NH201809005 – SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘When the Tide Goes Out’ – SO4153 – NH201809009 – SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘Warm Days Cool Nights’ – SO4152 – NH201809003 – SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘Little Reef Near The Coast’ – SO4151 – NH201809004 – SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘Busy Morning On The Harbour’ – SO4150 – NH201809008 -SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘Shallow Waters and Sandbanks’ – SO4149 – NH201809002 – SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘Sunset On The Harbour’ – SO4148 – NH201809007 – SOLD
Naomi Hobson: ‘Story Place’ – SO4147 – NH201809001 – SOLD
