Wild BEAUTY

You can almost sense the ominous, grey clouds rolling in, casting a moody shadow over the desert-like terrain. It’s a skyscape JMW Turner would be proud of, as a splash of resplendent blue still lingers above candyfloss clouds in the distance despite the threat of a downpour edging ever closer. And privy to it all is a steady stream of water carving its way through the dusty scrub below, playing back the show of shifting light and kaleidoscopic hues with its own metallic glint.

There’s an untameable, rugged beauty as well as a striking luminosity to Margaret Larlham’s painting Solitude III, something that can be said of all the award-winning artist’s pastel landscapes.

Another familiar feature is the subject itself: epic desert scenes in which life thrives against all odds and mountaintops touch the sky. It’s the sort of scenery that surrounded the artist during her childhood in rural South