Father Sky, Mother Earth brings together a body of work that is both intimate and expansive, shaped by Aly Bennett’s lived experience as a mother, daughter and First Nations woman. Her paintings arise from a deeply intuitive process where emotion is transcribed through gesture, repetition and restraint. Each work becomes a visual passage, carrying memory, loss, presence and relationality.

Bennett draws from personal and ancestral lineages including the Barkindji of the Darling River basin and the Ngalakan of Arnhem Land, embedding cultural continuity into each mark. Her work resists linear narrative in favour of something slower and more elemental — an attunement to cycles, to kinship, to Country. As she writes, “Much of my inspiration comes from my son, whose gentle presence and curiosity remind me of the sacred connection between nurture and nature.” This connection pulses throughout the exhibition not as theme, but as rhythm.

Rather than illustrating stories, Bennett allows meaning to emerge through the material. Her paintings unfold through a process of layering and letting go, where colour fields hold silence and form becomes a language of feeling. What results is work that is neither declarative nor didactic but open, porous enough to absorb the viewer’s own experiences while remaining firmly rooted in her own.

There is a sacred rhythm in the everyday: a tide pool glimmering under a child's gaze, grief softened by the voice of love, the silent hum before a brush touches canvas. My work is rooted in these moments — intimate, fleeting, yet eternal - where nature and nurture converge, and where personal mythologies take shape through paint.

As a mother and artist, my practice is both a meditation and a celebration. I am deeply inspired by the gentleness and wisdom of my son, whose presence reminds me of the deep, grounding energy of Mother Earth and the expansive, holding force of Father Sky. These archetypes shape not only my identity but also my approach to creating art - intuitive, nurturing, and elemental.

Through my painting, I seek to hold space - for grief, for joy, for ancestral memory, for rebirth. Each line and layer becomes an offering, a thread in a tapestry of lived experience. Whether l'm capturing the light of a summer afternoon or the heaviness of loss, l invite viewers into a world that honors emotional truth and natural cycles.

In the studio, I work in bursts of intuitive flow, often producing collections that emerge organically - like wildflowers in bloom. My materials are chosen for their tactile resonance, and my process is both grounded and exploratory. Every brushstroke is a conversation between earth and sky, between memory and possibility.

Art, for me, is a space of communion — with land, spirit, and self. And through it, I hope others find a reflection of their own story, their own stillness, their own wild light.

Aly Bennett is a visual artist of Barkindji and Ngalakan heritage. She began painting professionally in 2021 following the passing of her father Crunchy Bennett, a renowned Indigenous artist and emu egg carver. Her practice has since developed into a distinctive visual language that speaks to emotional memory, matrescence and her evolving relationship to Country.

A self-taught artist, Bennett has been mentored by a lineage of artists within her own family including her father, mother and grandmother. Their influence continues to shape her practice and deepen her connection to storytelling through art. She creates work from her home studio on Dharawal Country in Woolooware, where she also produces commissioned pieces and supports community-focused initiatives through her creative practice.

Instagram.com/alybennettart