Land and Sea

Typography and geology has everything and yet nothing to do with her work.
Dahl’s work has luminosity and character as it captures the deep spiritual nature of “land” and growth, with its patterns, lines and shapes emphasized by colour.

She maps the vast contextual layering of the earth and the interconnectedness with Flowers, Trees and all things living, harnessing ancient, historical and contemporary references.
Coming to Australia from Asia over five decades ago, Dahl has absorbed the landscape into her psychic. She has familiarized herself with the desert country with its many moods and complex physical and spiritual nuances. The memories of the Land of her birth – Thailand,with its exotic smells, bustle, colour and fragrant blooms, also feeds into her work.

She has begun to see and hear a subliminal visual text. Soft whisperings, low murmurings past and present with half told stories entwine and colide. These observations are symbolized by the textures, patterns and markings that pepper her textured earth and organic growth paintings.
The materials that Astrid uses, varies with each painting as she straddles abstractness and recognizable forms. Acrylics are sometimes combined with oils along with a variety of textured grounds and mediums. Her paintings are on canvas, stretched on a stretcher frame then varnished with a satin finish.

“Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life” – John Lubbock