77. Underfoot

Artwork number: 77
Artist: Sophie Kirkham
Medium: Acrylic on board
Description: Underfoot explores the landscape from a shifted perspective -- looking down rather than out.
Inspired by the colours, textures and irregular patterns of the Western Australian landscape, the work reflects the way terrain transforms when viewed from above. Blocks of green, ochre and muted earth tones intersect with dark, fragmented lines, suggesting vegetation, tracks, boundaries and the marks left across the land.
Built through layers, Underfoot moves between the recognisable and the abstract. From a distance, the landscape appears almost mapped or gridded; up close, those structures dissolve into smaller, imperfect details
The work is an invitation to notice landscapes differently -- not simply as a horizon or destination, but as a collection of patterns, colours and traces beneath us, both natural and man-made. It celebrates the beautiful irregularity of the natural environment and the details that can easily go unnoticed as we move through it.