Sandesh Heinicke: Puriri Me (Ode to a Tree)

Opening in the Main Gallery
Saturday 27 April 3-4.30pm

During 2005 Heinicke made a series of drawings and paintings of trees. Working en plain air deepened her understanding and brought her closer to nature allowing her to appreciate and acknowledge the trees in a more subtle and innocent way. They are not merely landscape paintings; they display not only the beauty of the trees in a visual way but also express the essential aesthetic power and life that each individual tree carries.

“To me they are the standing people. I can see their beauty and uniqueness, I can feel the strong presence they radiate and also an incredible love and joy. They shower their blessings constantly, as oxygen (we call it).”

Her paintings are expressive and gestural; the process is more like a dance, as it involves the whole body. There is an inter-play between the painter and the tree, a channel of expression. It is often quite spontaneous and when starting off, rather uncontrolled. That, to Sandesh, is the natural way to interconnect all these different aspects of the continuous change and movement she perceives in herself and in nature.