Exploring the deep interconnectedness of landscape, material and image through a uniquely integrated practice, Flinders Lane Gallery presents Of Ash and Ochre – the Melbourne solo debut exhibition of Western Australian artist Samantha Dennison.
Bringing together two distinct yet deeply interwoven modes of practice: still life painting and ceramic vessel-making, this unique pairing offers audiences a rare opportunity to see both the artist’s materials and her painted representations of them – drawing a powerful link between land, form and image.
“Making my own pots again has reshaped my still life paintings, and developing my own glazes has expanded this practice. These new vessels I then use as the subjects of my paintings, to convey my experiences within these West Australian landscapes upon which I live and visit,” said artist Samantha Dennison.
The exhibition centres around vessels created using materials Dennison collected during time spent in the Pilbara, including black clay and ash from burnt snakewood gathered at Cheela Plains Station.
These raw materials were brought back to her Albany studio and transformed through an experimental glaze-making process. Fired in a reduction kiln, the resulting surfaces are rich with earth tones – deep reds, blacks, and ochres that evoke the landscape they came from.
These handmade vessels serve not only as beautiful sculptural objects in their own right but also as subjects for Dennison’s contemplative still life paintings. Her minimal, luminous, and precise compositions explore the interplay of form, shadow, and surface.
Native flora appears occasionally, allowing the vessels to hold space for the wider details of the landscapes with which she interacts. Each work invites the viewer to reflect on the slow processes of making, observing, and remembering, and a grounded meditation on the connection between material and place.
Samantha Dennison is a multidisciplinary artist based in Albany/Kinjarling on Western Australia’s south coast. Her practice spans painting and ceramics, with a focus on place-based processes and quiet formal refinement. Known for her tonal still life works, Dennison brings a painter’s sensitivity to all aspects of her practice – from the shaping of clay to the control of light and composition.
Samantha Dennison: Of Ash and Ochre
Flinders Lane Gallery, The Nicholas Building, Corner Flinders Lane and Swanston Street, Melbourne
Exhibition: 23 September – 18 October 2025
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.flg.com.au for details.
Images: Samantha Dennison, Cheela Ash Still Life Landscape, 2025. oil on canvas, 63cm x 100cm – courtesy of Samantha Dennison and Flinders Lane Gallery | Samantha Dennison, Hakea Laurina and Linda’s Kinjarling slip bowl, 2025. oil on canvas, 80cm x 80cm – courtesy of Samantha Dennison and Flinders Lane Gallery