Slip into the Silence, You’ll Find Me There

Written By Lynda Howitt
 

Some works arrive as statements. This one arrived as a whisper.

Slip into the Silence, You'll Find Me There is an ink-on-paper SoulCircle in soft greys and lilac, held within a gentle circular form that doesn't ask for attention so much as offer a pause. A moment to soften. A place to arrive.

It speaks of listening rather than speaking. Of that space beneath the noise, beneath effort and striving, where something quieter is always already waiting. I find that place in the making of these works. I made this one hoping others might find it in the looking.

Exhibited as part of the Mid West Arts Members Exhibition at Geraldton Regional Art Gallery.

 
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Returning Home - Finalist, Mid West Art Prize 2023
Returning Home - Finalist, Mid West Art Prize 2023

Seashells remind us that every passing life leaves something beautiful behind.

These works began on the beach in front of my studio in Geraldton. I'd walk the shore and forage, shells worn smooth by the sea, shaped by time and tide into something quietly perfect. I wanted them in the work. Not as decoration but as presence. A way of literally embodying the sea within the circle.

Slip into the Silence, You’ll Find Me There
Slip into the Silence, You’ll Find Me There

Some works arrive as statements. This one arrived as a whisper.

Slip into the Silence, You'll Find Me There is an ink-on-paper SoulCircle in soft greys and lilac, held within a gentle circular form that doesn't ask for attention so much as offer a pause. A moment to soften. A place to arrive.

400 Seagulls
400 Seagulls

Four hundred seagulls. One for each year since Dutch navigator Frederick de Houtman made the first recorded European sighting of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands in 1619.

Buried - Finalist Mid West Art Prize 2021
Buried - Finalist Mid West Art Prize 2021

Selected as a finalist in the Mid West Art Prize 2021 at the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery, Western Australia.

Buried was made with ink and seawater on paper. Simple materials. But chosen deliberately.

Art Residency - Carnamah, Western Australia
Art Residency - Carnamah, Western Australia

Selected as the first of ten artists to attend the Ebb+Flow Residency with the North Midlands Project, supported by Regional Arts Western Australia. A month in the Western Australian bushland. Vast, raw, unhurried. The kind of space that does something to your sense of scale, of yourself, of time, of what matters.

Seashell SoulCircles
Seashell SoulCircles

Seashells remind us that every passing life leaves something beautiful behind.

These works began on the beach in front of my studio in Geraldton. I'd walk the shore and forage, shells worn smooth by the sea, shaped by time and tide into something quietly perfect. I wanted them in the work. Not as decoration but as presence. A way of literally embodying the sea within the circle.

Behind the Scenes - Short Film
Behind the Scenes - Short Film

Eight minutes inside the studio.

This short film follows the making of my Seashell SoulCircle series, the float sculptures, the process, the thinking behind it. But more than a making-of, it's a glimpse into how my art and my life are genuinely the same thing. Not separate. Never separate.

Co-creating With The Sea
Co-creating With The Sea

There's a particular kind of letting go that only happens at the water's edge.

I'd always painted of the sea, its colour, its feeling, what it means to me. But one day I wanted the sea to paint with me. So I took the work to the shore. Immersed it in the ocean. Let the water move through the ink in its own way, in its own time.

What surprised me was how much I had to release

Artivism - Turtle Island, Fiji
Artivism - Turtle Island, Fiji

For a hundred million years sea turtles have moved through the world's oceans. Quietly. Purposefully. Ancient beyond imagination.

On Turtle Island in Fiji, where the local culture holds these animals as sacred, I encountered one of the most unexpected and moving uses of art I've ever witnessed. To protect the turtles from hunters and poachers, the island carefully catches them, paints their shells, and releases them back into the sea. A painted turtle is no longer desirable to those who would take it. The art becomes a lifesaver. Literally.

Sealounge - Pop-Up Gallery, Geraldton
Sealounge - Pop-Up Gallery, Geraldton

Some ideas start simply. I wanted a space that felt like the sea.

Not a gallery in the traditional sense. Not just a shop. Somewhere you could slow down, breathe, let the seaside state of mind do what it does. Sea-inspired sounds, SoulCircles on the walls, original works and fine art prints alongside fashion accessories and homewares. A place to linger rather than pass through.

Lynda Howitt
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Returning Home - Finalist, Mid West Art Prize 2023
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400 Seagulls