Bridget Seaton’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in both her formal education and her lived experience across two continents. Completing a Fine Art degree in the United Kingdom in 1998, Seaton developed a strong foundation in painting and printmaking. However, it was her move to Western Australia in 2010 that brought a new vitality and direction to her work. The vastness of the Australian landscape, with its untamed wilderness, light, and flora, became the wellspring of her creativity and the heart of her artistic voice.
This migration was more than geographical; it was also a shift in artistic perspective. The UK’s softer, cultivated countryside gave way to the rugged expanses of Australia’s bushland, where Seaton found herself captivated by the interplay between wild beauty and human interference. It is this dynamic tension between natural abundance and fragile loss that continues to inform her work.
Immersed in Landscape
Seaton’s practice begins with walking. Time spent in wilderness areas is central to her process: walking, observing, sketching, and painting on location are the first steps in her dialogue with the land. These field studies are not ends in themselves but serve as catalysts for memory and reflection once she returns to the studio.
In her studio practice, Seaton works primarily in acrylic painting and printmaking, drawing from memory rather than direct representation. This choice creates a distinct quality in her work: the paintings are not topographical records but emotional translations of experience. They capture the feeling of walking among trees, of witnessing shifting light, of sensing both presence and absence in the land.
By focusing on memory, Seaton avoids the temptation of reproducing the grandiose view. Instead, she finds beauty in what might otherwise be overlooked, the tangled chaos of undergrowth, the subtle transitions of a patch of woodland, or the quiet persistence of wildflowers growing on the margins of farmland.
Between Presence and Absence
A recurring theme in Seaton’s art is the layered history of the land itself. Much of her work responds directly to walking through areas of Western Australia that once were part of vast open woodland. Today, these landscapes bear the marks of change cleared for agriculture, fragmented into monocultures, or reduced to scattered remnants of biodiversity.
Her paintings are alive with vigorous mark-making, echoing the unruly energy of native flora. Lines, colors, and textures intermingle to reflect the fragile complexity of plants in varying states of existence: alive, dying, or decayed. Among these forms, she includes broken lines and ghostly traces, symbolizing the absence of large trees that once towered over the landscape. These ghost trees become metaphors for memory and loss, visual reminders of what has been erased and what remains only in traces.
This interplay of presence and absence in Seaton’s work is both poetic and political. It celebrates the beauty of native ecosystems while gently raising awareness of their vulnerability. Her paintings are not didactic statements but rather invitations to notice, to remember, and to care for the living world.
Exhibitions and Community Engagement
Over the course of her career, Bridget Seaton has built a strong exhibition record. She has been selected as a finalist for numerous group shows, evidence of the resonance her work holds within the broader art community. Alongside this recognition, she has held four solo exhibitions and participated in several collaborative projects, further consolidating her reputation as a committed and evolving artist.
Seaton also embraces the importance of community engagement. She participates regularly in open studio events, creating opportunities for audiences to witness the processes behind her work and engage directly with the artist herself. As a qualified arts educator, she extends this commitment to teaching, running workshops in painting and printmaking across a variety of art establishments. Her role as an educator reinforces her belief that art is not only a private practice but also a shared, communal experience.
The Language of Mark-Making
A distinguishing element of Seaton’s work lies in her approach to mark-making. Her brushstrokes are bold and energetic, echoing the vitality of the landscapes she walks through. Yet this energy is balanced with sensitivity, as she seeks to honor the fragile intricacy of plant life.
In many works, her marks overlap and collide, creating a visual rhythm akin to the chaotic growth of bushland. The result is not an orderly composition but a living surface where forms emerge, dissolve, and reappear. These painterly gestures remind viewers that nature itself resists containment; it thrives in disorder, and its beauty is often found in its complexity.
Memory as Creative Catalyst
Seaton’s choice to paint primarily from memory is a defining aspect of her practice. Memory introduces both distortion and intimacy, details blur, impressions sharpen, and emotions surface. The resulting works carry the authenticity of lived experience rather than photographic precision.
By relying on memory, Seaton positions her work between documentation and imagination. Her paintings are both true to place and interpretive, reflecting the ways landscapes live within us long after we have walked through them. This approach allows her to transcend realism and instead evoke an inner truth about the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Conclusion: Celebrating the Ordinary, Remembering the Lost
Bridget Seaton’s art offers a profound meditation on landscape, memory, and the fragile threads that connect us to nature. Through her acrylic paintings and prints, she celebrates the ordinary, the overlooked undergrowth, the subtle interplay of plants, the layered textures of woodland. At the same time, she acknowledges absence, giving form to the ghosts of lost trees and vanished habitats.
Her work is not about spectacle but about intimacy: an invitation to walk with her, to notice what remains, and to remember what is gone. By combining her roles as artist, educator, and community advocate, Seaton ensures that her art not only reflects the landscape but also contributes to the cultural and environmental conversations surrounding it.
In an era when natural habitats are under increasing pressure, Seaton’s paintings remind us of the value in looking closely, remembering deeply, and honoring the beauty that persists, fragile, complex, and resilient.
