Laura Jones, Rockpool 2020. Oil on linen, 183 x 198cm. Courtesy: the artist and Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie

Sydney-based artist and 2019 artist in residence, Laura Jones presents Arcadia a solo exhibition that celebrates our spirited local Port Macquarie coastal landscape.

Jones’ signature vivid colourful still lifes and spirited landscapes are scaled up to depict familiar sub-tropical flora. Banksias, flannel flowers, banana plants and frangipanis, rock pools with urchins and Neptune’s pearls are all captured with unashamed reverence for beauty.

In the wake of the unprecedented fire storm that has raged up and down the East Coast of Australia, her works can be seen as elegies for what has been lost and what we must fight to protect. Finding light in the human affection for the coast and its vast biodiversity, both native and farmland, this exhibition expresses love and sorrow for what was destroyed, and fondness for what still stands, projecting a sense of hope for the future in the age of the Anthropocene.

Like peering into the tiny universes of sea stars in rock pools, so bright you wouldn’t think they blend in, Laura Jones exhibition Arcadia will share a nostalgic sense of wonder and joy at the natural world.