Sow by Catherine Clayton-Smith

92cm x 102cm
Acrylic on Canvas

Sow draws together fragments from my former view over Diamond Bay in Vaucluse, the unruly growth of my Epiphyllum Oxypetalum (Queen of the Night) plant, and the shifting outline of my own body. These elements are layered into a space that moves between observation and sensation. The Queen of the Night flowers only once a year for a single evening before wilting by morning, echoing the work’s sense of transience and transformation.

The painting developed through multiple depictions of forms and erasure, allowing the imagery to emerge and dissolve across the surface. A lilac sky and a glowing yellow light in the distance create a subtle tension between intimacy and expansiveness. In Sow, body, landscape, and plant life become intertwined, suggesting cycles of vulnerability and persistence within a continual state of becoming.