Julianne Tilse spent many years rowing on the Hunter River immersed in a solitude that is afforded only when one is in a single scull. Here her paintings open to a very personal knowledge, contemplation and a deep engagement with the natural world that stems from her total immersion and 'being' within this specific environment, of the Hunter River Estuary - one is never far from a sense that the river "still glides".
Julianne Tilse makes us aware through her research that a deeper appreciation of this environment is enhanced by understanding not only the sensate but also the history of recording the river, the changing ecology of the river and the environmental issues that currently affect the Hunter River. Her work is evocative and sensitive to the history of this river environment, its Indigenous and Colonial past while not shying away from the truths of the impact of the Anthropocene.
The incorporation of both empirical knowledge and practice based research in this PhD culminates in a body of work that aims to inspire an aesthetic awareness of this unique location. In doing so Julianne suggests that by seeing "what was, and is" the creative outcomes are able to transcend empirical and objective realities to become windows into the unknown and the liminal.
