Behind The Space: Hannah Nowlan

Can you begin by telling us a little bit about you?

My name is Hannah Nowlan, an early career artist working across abstract landscapes, based between Black Rock and Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula. Alongside painting, I'm an interior and editorial stylist, founder of Lander—Se, my rural gallery space in Red Hill, and owner of Nunchi Oils, a sensory wellness brand. Scent has become an unexpected extension of the painting practice, and I've been enjoying bringing all my creative pursuits together at Lander—Se.

How do you like to work, and what do you turn to for inspiration?

I love working on a series across a dedicated period of time. Right now I'm completing an artist in residence program, painting through winter while the gallery space is closed. Blue Metal came out of two years spent building Lander—Se rather than painting, so the inspiration for that whole body of work was the rural land and the gallery property itself. Stories from neighbours, materials that lay under the surface of the ground, the history of a quarry that used to operate on the property. I'm drawn to the histories of a place and the feelings created after spending time there. I try to capture the essence of place and the spirit of landscape.

What does Australian design mean to you as an artist today?

Supporting Australian design, and Australian made where possible, matters to me. It's how we keep our textile designers, sewers and craftspeople in business, the people holding up the crafts behind the objects we live with. Australia has a style of its own, one you recognise instantly once you've seen enough of it, and I think that comes from the same place my own work does: a particular spirit of landscape, and of place, that shapes the way we design and make things here.

What does your piece ‘Blue Metal’ explore?

The title comes from McIlroy's Quarry, once part of our Red Hill gallery property. Blue metal is the local name for the slate that was mined there and used for the local roads. Once mining stopped, the quarry filled with natural springs, thirty metres deep, and the colour of that water against the exposed slate became the starting point for the painting. The tan and ochre is the stone bluffs surrounding the quarry site. The blue is the depth of the springs below.

You speak about embedding memories and emotions into each work. Is there a particular memory or feeling at the heart of this piece?

This painting marked a shift toward simplicity in my work. There's a large expanse left as raw, unpainted linen, a decision I made to give the piece breathing room and negative space. It includes a blue moon, a recurring symbol in my paintings, layered against the slate bluffs and the movement of blue mineral springs, speaking to the underground aquifers and channels water takes from the centre of the earth into this deep, expansive oasis. There's a mystical quality to it. I was trying to understand what lies beneath the surface of our own property, whether there are more aquifers, springs and channels running beneath us. Possibly.

What do you enjoy about seeing your work outside of a gallery setting, in places where people interact with it every day?

There's something I like about a painting living somewhere unguarded. In a store, people experience it more organically, rather than approaching it with the attention a gallery asks for. It changes what the work's allowed to be. Less precious. More lived with. It gives a sense of curiosity to the everyday, where pockets of inspiration turn up in unexpected moments.

Finally, what's next for Hannah Nowlan?

Up next at Lander—Se is a trio exhibition titled NUMINA, opening this September, featuring my paintings alongside local painter Charlotte Swiden and sculptor Andrew Gibson. I'm also running a five day oil painting workshop with Grampians Arts in January, bookings now open. It's an intuitive exploration of abstract oil painting, no experience required, and it's going to be a beautiful week.