Return to Landscape

Aleisha Finn (b. 2002, Yackandandah, Victoria) is an emerging painter whose practice explores the emotional and psychological relationship between figure and landscape through gestural abstraction and a vibrant use of colour. After studying Art History at the University of Melbourne, Aleisha has returned to the rural landscape of her childhood on the outskirts of Yackandandah ahead of her upcoming travels to Europe. This return has become central to her current body of work, marking a shift from the intensity of the urban environment toward a more introspective engagement with place, memory and the natural world.  

Working with layered paint and fragmented forms Aleisha’spaintings consider the complexities of human connection and the ways individuals dissolve into, resist or are transformed by their surroundings. Figures emerge and disappear within shifting landscapes, occupying spaces that feel both physical and psychological. Her practice is deeply intuitive, balancing unresolved painterly surfaces with moments of intimacy, rhythm and emotional tension.  

Aleisha’s previous solo exhibition, After Dark, held at Artemesiain Melbourne, explored the energy disorientation and emotional intensity of Melbourne’s nightlife. In contrast, her recent body of work titled Return to Landscape, reflects a quieter yet deeply charged encounter with the regional environment she once perceived as distant and ordinary. Returning to these familiar places has revealed a renewed sense of spirituality and emotional resonance within the landscape. 

Drawing from memories of childhood, fleeting experiences within nature and the atmosphere of rural life, Aleisha’s work considers the landscape not simply as a setting, but as a living emotional presence – a site where memory, body and environment become intertwined. Return to Landscape evoke landscapes that are instable, dreamlike and deeply felt, capturing the shifting relationship between, self, environment and remembrance.

Exhibition Opening : Sunday 2 August at 5pm – Beechworth Contemporary Art Space