Dahlia Jug III

This painting grew from my continuing interest in the way light falls across flowers, glass and the leadlight windows in my home. I had already painted dahlias on this windowsill twice for my 2026 solo exhibition, 'Illuminated Stillness', and was drawn back to the subject again, This time I used a square format and a closer composition, with the darker garden beyond the window setting off the pale pink and white flowers.

Painted in acrylic on canvas, the work is built up in layers of colour and visible brushwork, with particular attention to the reflections in the glass jug and the changing light across the windowsill. The soft pinks, whites and greens give the painting a light, fresh quality, while the darker garden beyond the window adds depth and contrast. This painting is framed.

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Lucy Watts is a Melbourne-based artist and printmaker working across acrylic painting and linocut. In 2022 she established Yuile Street Studio and began focusing on her art practice full time.

In 2026, Lucy presented her solo exhibition, Illuminated Stillness, at Town Hall Gallery, Boroondara Arts. The exhibition brought together paintings and linocut prints inspired by the leadlight windows of her home and the shifting patterns of light they cast across everyday objects and domestic scenes.

Lucy’s paintings are often intimate still lifes featuring flowers, vessels, bottles and familiar objects. She is drawn to the way light, colour and texture can transform an ordinary arrangement, and her paintings have become increasingly loose and gestural in response to these fleeting observations.

Alongside painting, Lucy creates original linocut prints using an etching press. Her printmaking ranges from bold single-colour works to larger reduction and multi-plate prints, with an emphasis on strong composition, shape and contrast.

Her subject matter is drawn largely from everyday life: interiors, gardens, landscapes, people and animals. Across both painting and printmaking, she is interested in noticing and recording moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

Lucy has received awards for her printmaking, exhibited in selected group exhibitions and a solo exhibition, and her work is held in private collections across Australia.