Mark and Place- the space between  

Daily ritual informs Stokes painting and drawing practice. Stokes resides on the north coast of NSW and her day like many begins with a ritual walk along the coastal fringe. It is a ritual practice and one which is performed morning and evening on most days of the year irrespective of the weather. Walking involves moving through a space and upon a surface. The geography of the terrain offers multiple perspectives as she moves through the landscape space; one is able to look down from above, where form and space are compressed, one looks across the ocean as surface, at another moment the edge of the ocean, where the sand becomes surface, porous to the tide; ocean glimpses shift through twisted foliage, headlands dissect the space; sky and ocean merge without an horizon. While these experiences may provide visual clues Mark and Place- the space between are not works painted as en plein air mimetic experience, instead they are of experience, one of immersion in place and atmosphere; the works are the residue of experience in its distilled form. The paintings themselves are borne out of performative practice in the studio, translating these spatial and surface experiences through the receptive qualities of the canvas surface and residue of mark.