Meg Walters
THE LONG GOODBYE
The Long Goodbye aims to explore the way memory informs our identity and reality. By disrupting foreground and background, just as our mind might through the lens of recollection, I hope to create images which are neither rational or coherent. They are pieced together as if in a dream, making sense to the mind, but not the eye.
Each painting in this body of work is an iteration of the same pivotal moment. A moment which imprinted on me in a way that I’m still trying to understand. The Long Goodbye is about a tree I came upon in the forest when I was hiking. I saw myself in that desolate, dying tree, and I’ve been trying to reconcile the fragility of life since. The stark, bleached whiteness of the tree’s branches against the dark understory, brimming with life, left a mark on me. The way the tree still searched for the sun, even with its dying breath, was admirable and melancholy all at once.
This series is a celebration of an experience that feels embedded into my identity. Its presence felt like seeing myself for the first time. This lightbulb moment shone a truth down onto me, illuminating something that has been lying dormant in the shadows. It brought a corner of me to life in an unexpectedly brilliant way. In this series, I have strived to capture the renewal and regeneration of all life. Nature’s beauty, chaos, its unconscious suffering and yearning to live, despite it all.
Meg Walters is an emerging artist based in Newcastle, NSW. Born and raised in Bermuda, Walters divided her time between her island home and Canada throughout her childhood. A residence in London while she studied at Chelsea College of Fine Art, was followed by a permanent move to Australia to complete her Bachelor of Art at Newcastle University. She continued her education at the Byron School of Art recently, before making the move back to Newcastle (Awakabal) where she now lives and works.
Walters has achieved sold-out exhibitions in Bermuda, Sydney and Melbourne. She has exhibited in solo and group shows across Australia as well as internationally. She has been a finalist in the 9×5 Landscape Prize, The Corner Store Landscape Prize and the Hunter Emerging Art Prize.
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EDUCATION
2018-2020 BYRON SCHOOL OF ART, Byron Bay, NSW, Visual Arts Practice & Studies
2006-2008 NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, Newcastle, NSW, Bachelor of Arts, Illustration
2003-2004 CHELSEA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, LONDON, London, UK, Foundation Diploma in Fine Art
ART PRIZES
2022
The Corner Store Landscape Prize (Finalist)
9x5 Landscape Prize (Finalist)
Hunter Emerging Art Prize (Finalist)
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2021
Border Art Prize (Finalist)
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RESIDENCIES
2022
The Lighthouse Arts Residency, Newcastle, NSW
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EXHIBITIONS
2023
Reimagined Landscape
Michael Reid Northern Beaches - Solo
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2022
Life is Not Symmetrical
Otomys - Solo
Multiverse
Tweed Regional Gallery - solo
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2021
Inertia
Michael Reid Northern Beaches - solo
Skin on Skin
Otomys - solo
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2020
Yesterday's Supernova
Michael Reid Northern Beaches - Solo
Australia - Living Land
Otomys - group show
Abandon Proceedings (BSA Grad Show)
Byron School of Art - Group Show
A PaintedLandscape
Michael Reid Berlin - Group Show
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2019
Ends of the Earth
Point of View Gallery - Solo
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