Competitions
Annika Romeyn
Instagram: @annika_lucy
Website: www.annika-romeyn.com
Artwork Title: Reflections (Old Mutawintji Gorge)
Artwork Medium: Watercolour monotype on paper
Year Created: 2024
Artwork Description:
My watercolour monotype, ‘Reflections (Old Mutawintji Gorge)’ is part of a larger body of work, grappling with the physical and psychological experience of walking in Old Mutawintji Gorge on Barkindji and Malyangapa Country, Far West NSW in 2022 & 2023.
Passing between weathered walls of rock rising up beside the dry creek-bed, I saw sky and earth converge in vital pools of water. Moving inwards, towards a larger waterhole, I also approached an internal space and state of stillness and contemplation. Seen in reflection, the horizon appears closer, yet just as elusive, forever shifting in relation to my position and point of view.
The watercolour monotype printmaking process, allows me to combine additive painterly bush-marks and subtractive marks, including the direct gestural wiping of my fingertip. In doing so, I seek to embed a sense of care and value in the environments I depict, through time and touch.
My choice of limited colour is intuitive and symbolic. A memory of dusty pink creek sand became a diluted wash across the sky, while the same pigments in higher concentration produced primal reddish browns that reminded me of the interaction of iron and oxygen both in the earth and in our bodies.
Artist Bio:
Living and working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country in Canberra, Annika Romeyn combines drawing, printmaking and painting to create intricate and evocative works on paper. Through her practice, Annika aims to convey the humbling and restorative experience of walking in nature. Frequently using her fingertip as a mark-making tool, she seeks to embed a sense of care and value in the environments she depicts, through time and touch. Her choice of limited colour is emotive, symbolic and specific to each place she responds to.
Annika graduated from the A.N.U. School of Art & Design in 2010 after undertaking a liberal arts education on scholarship at Morgan State University, Baltimore, USA (2005–09). Her practice has been nurtured by field-based residencies and cultural exchanges, including the Sharing Stories Arts Exchange on Yuin Country (2019) and Walgalu Country (2025) and the Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s 2022 Open Cut Commission.
Annika’s work has received national recognition. In 2023 she was recipient of the Canberra Arts Patrons Organisation’s Mandy Martin Art and Environment Award. In 2024 she was Winner of the River of Art Prize, in 2021 she was Winner of the Burnie Print Prize, and in 2020 she was Winner of both the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award and the National Works on Paper prize.
Annika’s work is represented by Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne.
