Immersed in isolation and wild weather, artist Zoe Grey paints a portrait of belonging

Young artist Zoe Grey grew up scaling rugged cliff faces and surfing through wild waves – painting the untameable landscape has earned her a lucrative $100,000 purse.

Artist Zoe Grey with her winning work, The Shape of Rock. Picture: Jessica King

Few Australians, let alone few Tasmanians have heard of the small coastal town of Marrawah, nestled deep in the westernmost point of the island state.

But deep in the cavernous countryside, surrounded by glimmering shores, artist Zoe Grey is bringing to life its beauty, and claiming a top prize for it.

Winning the lucrative $100,000 Hadley’s Art Prize for The Shape of Rock, the 28-year-old artist’s energetic work pairs rich colours with layered compositions, immersing viewers in an experience of her hometown: ­isolated, striking, but unusually embracing in all its grandeur.

The enigmatic work, selected among 35 finalists, affords a captivating interpretation of Australia’s rural landscape, which reveals “just how much of the country is yet to be discovered”.

“Tasmania is over-represented in super talented and successful artists, really, for our small, tiny population, but you feel a bit forgotten down here,” she says.

“We’re a unique island and we respond to its landscape, culture and history on the canvas.”

Grey muses she’s been a long-time entrant of the contemporary art prize, designed to shine light on overlooked parts of the ­country, securing a finalist spot in 2021.

Grey's work depicts the rich landscape of tiny Tasmanian coastal town Marrawah.

But it’s the glaringly personal piece that earned her the top prize, exploring the connection to her hometown known for “raw and rugged” coastlines and “wild weather patterns that emerge straight out of the Southern Ocean”.

“We’re exposed here, and there’s nothing between this tiny remote town and a wide open ocean,” she shares.

With a family connection to Marrawah spanning four generations, Grey’s upbringing surfing, diving and fishing along the ­beaches while wandering through bushland and returning to the family shed made by her father from rammed earth sheltered on a rocky point, offers a sense of “isolated belonging” she captures in her work.

As a surfer, Grey describes days dictated by the environment, fostering a deep relationship – a dialogue with the landscape on its own terms.

Grey ­acknowledges there’s an element of loneliness akin to painting her hometown, an integral part of her identity although she now lives in Hobart. “It’s a place of many challenges – being so isolated, you give up the luxuries of life we’re more accustomed to, and you find yourself quite alone with nothing but this enormous space and your painting to connect to,” she says.

The widely untouched town boasts cultural significance for Aboriginal people, with Preminghana, a distinctly shaped ­mountain at the heart of the town rich with ancient rock ­carvings.

It’s a rare artistic education Grey says forms a focal point to her practice as a non-Indigenous landscape painter.

“The Peerapper people are the original carers of this land and I know it’s my role to negotiate as a white person how I deal with the landscape appropriately,” Grey says.

 The Finalists Exhibition features at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart, coinciding with celebrations of its 190th birthday till August 25.