Smoke Haze at Blue Pool

The Blue Pool is a spectacular swimming hole on Freestone Creek, in Gippsland, Victoria. The person in the foreground gives some sense of its scale...this is a large pool! Historically it was a sacred birthing pool for the local indigenous Braiakaulung women.
At the time of this painting, bush fires were burning to the North and East sending a smoky haze far and wide which created a soft, eerie backdrop to this beautiful part of the world.

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Melissa Kenihan is a Melbourne based artist who lives and works in St Kilda. Since dedicating herself to full time painting in 2017, she has been a finalist in both the 2021 and 2022 Glover Prize, the 2022 John Leslie Art Prize and a semi-finalist in the 2019 Moran National Portrait Prize.

Melissa has been an artist and storyteller since childhood. Early years of drawing and painting gave way to a 20-year career as a creative, award-winning sound designer for film and television.

Her work is rooted in connection, experience, and memory, and is characterized by realism and expressive detail. It evokes a sense of time and place, and encourages viewers to explore the intriguing backstory.