Lilianne Ivins

of the National Art School and the recipient of first prize for her pair of (left) and . Rather than depicting any singular site, the artist’s hazy, dreamlike scenes capture the sensation of being in the wilderness, blurring the line between nature study and psychological self-portrait. “Inspired by my love of wilderness, travel and romantic landscape painting, my work relates to the transformative and metaphysical nuances of remote space,” says Lilianne, who resides in the NSW Blue Mountains and recently returned from a solo trip to Iceland and Canada. “I spent a lot of time on my own hiking in these beautiful places and felt this duality of peace and fear.” Poised between the unsettling and sublime, the works are rendered on arched canvases that invoke the drama of ecclesiastical architecture, albeit on an intimate scale. With the stillness of forming a counterbalance to ’s feverish, surrealist flashes, the judges ultimately decided to recognise the works collectively in awarding Lilianne this year’s top honour.