Kathryn Ryan’s painterly interpretations of nature move beyond the merely representational. Driven by a desire to express something of the deeper, intimate experience that the landscape can offer, Ryan uses horizon lines, paddocks and the trees within them as her enduring muse.

The artist states, “The rural landscape of South West Victoria has been a source of inspiration for some years now. It provides a starting point for me to explore the use of landscape as metaphor, to convey more eternal and universal concerns such as desires for balance & harmony, serene contemplation and a connection to the spiritual.”

This awareness can be keenly observed in the many layers of paint & glaze meticulously developed within her canvases. Deep and glassy, her works invite us to gaze ‘into’ their surfaces, to experience something of the atmosphere which she wishes to express. The stillness of these scenes is arresting. We are drawn into an evocative world of misty serenity. “Observations of nature’s cycles and contrasts - growth, decay, renewal, changing light, the ambiguity and mystery offered by changing light - are translated through my painting process, to elevate the mind beyond the surface and everyday.”

Ryan’s sensitivity and patience, met with her intuition for colour, light and tone, confer her a unique position within the Australian landscape tradition. Of her practice, which involves spending three to four months on each canvas, she reflects, “The painting process is always challenging, both physically and mentally. Changes are often subtle and my paint handling often leading me to new discoveries.”

Her vast expanses of space render a moment beyond the factual and offer up instead a timeless, enduring milieu of the sublime. One recognises certain universal truths in all of her landscapes, an essence that the painter has seized ingeniously, to alert us to a possible, empathetic relationship with life based on a synthesis with nature’s uplifting vision.

Ryan has been short-listed for several major art awards including the Wynne Prize in 2000, 2004 and 2007; the Alice Prize in 1998, 1999 and 2001, and the Hutchins Art Prize in 1998, 1999 and 2001. In 1998 Ryan was awarded the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award and in 1990 the BP Acquisitive Prize. Ryan’s works have been purchased by the curators and advisers for the Macquarie Group Collection, the Warrnambool Art Gallery Collection and Artbank. Most recently her work has been acquired by the Parliament House Collection.