Petrichor
CHANTAL DE KOCK
17 Jan – 8 Feb 2026
Opening celebration: Saturday 17 January, 1.30–3pm
Petrichor is a new body of work by Gippsland-based artist Chantal de Kock.
The title refers to the scent of rain on dry earth – a quiet, sensory marker of renewal – and the paintings, created using earth pigments, similarly trace moments of re-grounding after emotional upheaval.
Working intuitively, Chantal allows each painting to evolve without a predetermined outcome. Layers are built, erased and reworked over time, echoing the slow, non-linear nature of healing. The resulting landscapes feel both internal and external – places that are remembered, imagined and felt rather than observed.
Rendered with soft brushwork, ethereal light and a rich emotional palette, Petrichor speaks to the possibility of grace after difficulty – and to nature’s enduring capacity to soothe, restore and steady us.
Chantal de Kock
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Chantal de Kock is a Gippsland-based artist who works with mixed media and earth pigments to create semi-abstract landscape paintings that sit between memory and place.
Working intuitively, Chantal builds layered surfaces using soil, sand and handmade pigments, creating works that feel both grounded and atmospheric. Her paintings draw on the quiet beauty of the natural world, with shifting light and subtle forms that invite a slower kind of looking.
Chantal’s work is deeply connected to land and the rhythms of the environment. Each painting holds a sense of stillness and reflection – a meeting point between nature, material and emotion.
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“Petrichor explores dreamscapes as places that can hold us. My work moves through imagined landscapes shaped by memory, emotion and healing – visual diaries that trace the delicate balance between vulnerability and resilience.
“I approach the canvas intuitively, without a fixed plan, allowing emotion and subconscious thought to guide each work. The layered, reworked surfaces mirror the complexity of emotional recovery, where nothing is resolved all at once.”
“In these paintings, the land carries emotional weight. Roots suggest re-grounding and repair, trees stand as quiet symbols of endurance, and the sky shifts from emptiness to openness and hope. Through soft light, rich colour and a romantic sensibility, I aim to suggest that after emotional storms, renewal is possible.”
“These works are an invitation to pause, to feel held by the landscape, and to witness the quiet, powerful process of healing.”
Chantal de Kock, 2026
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Petrichor is on at Tyger from 17 January – 8 February 2026.
The gallery is open 10-2pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Other times are available by appointment.