Werrong Beach, New Year's Day

A remote and secluded nude swimming beach south of Sydney. One of my favourite nude swimming spots, the climb down passes a dramatic sandstone cliff before dropping into lush coastal rainforest of cabbage tree palms and ferns.

I was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery on my painting hand while creating this landscape, and decided to experiment using my non-dominant hand. The abstract has been an ongoing experiment on a spare canvas that I’ve been scraping paint onto at the end of painting days over the last year.

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land throughout Australia, and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

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Born in America, Sydney-based Kim Leutwyler migrated to Australia in 2012. She works in a variety of media including painting, installation, ceramics, printmedia and drawing. Leutwyler holds concurrent bachelor degrees in Studio and Art History from Arizona State University, and additionally graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Painting and Drawing degree.Leutwyler's current body of work features paintings exploring notions of beauty, gender and queer identity. She has come to focus on painting as a medium because of its primarily masculine history in the western art canon. Her artwork has been exhibited in multiple galleries and museums throughout Australia and the United States.Some of Leutwyler's recent accolades include being selected as a finalist in the Archibald, Sulman and Black Swan Art Prizes, the Churchie national emerging art prize as well as the Portia Geach Memorial Award.