Saira Ellen K. Spencer is a self-taught painter living and working on Menang-Bibbulmun land, amongst forested wetland, 35 km west of Kwoorabup (Denmark), WA with her partner and their dog, Ralph.

Saira has been pursuing a fine arts practice since early 2020 after retiring from a 15 year professional tattooing career. She makes abstract-surrealist works that combine biophilic textures with anthropomorphic forms and fleshtones to depict states of inner turmoil, transition and growth & decay cycles.

Her work invites the viewer to consider the body as landscape; drawing parallels between phenomena of the natural sciences and of human experience.

Saira’s recent arts practice has been primarily concerned with how water and the physical environment interacts with medium as well as exploring various other combinations of natural and synthetic materials and mechanisms.

The intention of this practice is to examine our, at-times, fraught relationship with the worlds around us whilst also celebrating the inherent beauty of Australia’s wilderness.

“This work describes the landscape as being a living, inconstant entity. Inspired by the seasonal creek on my property that seems to change its shape every year, Seep depicts silt and fine sediment shifting, settling and falling away in response to water current, evaporative cycles, wind and erosion.”

“Seep is also intended as an emotional landscape. For me, it speaks to the processes of maturation and of ‘settling down’. Pushing back at our tendency to avoid conversations around mortality and fragility, I made this work to invite the viewer to consider the gentler aspects of ageing and the value of restorative practice at times of overwhelm.”

Shipping to anywhere in Australia is just $30 for this work. International shipping is available on request.