Barbara Chapman seeks to convey what it feels like to breathe the air of the places she chooses to paint. This is often close to home, around the sea and the river, in the Western Australian light which has a clarity like no other.

This painting depicts the iconic Morten Bay fig trees on Rottnest Island. She employs a stylised and abstracted approach to landscape, capturing the Island’s relaxed atmosphere and dappled light through the leaves.

Chapman studied at WAIT (now Curtin university) and Claremont School of Art and worked as a Curator at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, and for the R & I Bank and Edith Cowan University.