Libby Mitchell is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Inverness, Scotland. Having completed an Advanced Diploma of Visual Art in Melbourne, Australia, she has since travelled New Zealand as a landscape artist, taking inspiration for her Art from the bush and her time working as a landscaper in Northland. She captures the sense of serenity within immersive landscapes, bush-scenes and wildlife through colourful paintings, intricate charcoals, thought provoking photography and installations.
“Drawing on colour psychology and emotive landscapes, my paintings have become a way for me to process difficult life events and emotions by associating colours with happy memories, sounds and smells. My palette is a reflection of my own multi-sensory experiences and memories from Pindan deserts of Northern Territory, to crystal blue waters of coastal Tasmania to the flower of the Puriri tree in New Zealand."
Her strong affinity for colour has her working intuitively and confidently with an extensive palette and strong brush strokes that together have become a signature of her work. Wildlife and the environment has always been something that fuels Libby’s practice.
“My colour palette to me is a reflection of my own deeply personal experiences of feeling completely immersed in nature. There was a moment in Karijini National Park, Western Australia, at dusk when was no-one else was around. Suddenly I was just so overcome by this intense feeling of just sheer joy. It reverberated over my whole body. It's still so clear in my mind and to this day was undoubtedly the happiest moment in my life. I will never forget that feeling. I still can’t put it into words that do it justice to this day. I spent months trying to recreate that feeling.. until I visited the NGV Triennal 2018, Melbourne and a specific artwork by Alexandra Kehayoglou, gave me the closest thing to that feeling since that experience. I knew then it was possible to make Art that has the potential to intertwine with the sensations we get from the natural world. A far bigger understanding than anything I’ve known before.”