This work is part of Tiarna Herczeg’s latest series of paintings Salt Air on Skin: On Stillness, Colour, and Feeling Whole. Herczeg says, “There’s a calm here, a sense of being sheltered. The painting reflects that hush: a reminder of how grounded and small we can feel when we’re surrounded by something ancient and alive. I remember walking through a rainforest of tall shady trees and feeling protected. I stood under them with my mum and dad. I am safe.”

Herczeg is a proud Kuku Yalanji and Hungarian woman and artist who aims to share her experience of dual identity through storytelling. Her vast planes and expressive compositions symbolise how she sees the land, whilst her palettes are tied to her inner psyche and physicality, her spirituality and feelings; one exists in perpetuity and the other only exists for a moment in time.