LISA GAY
“Living in Tallebudgera Valley, high above the babbling creek, I long for the sea and imagine it’s shining presence.“
Lisa Gay’s work for Aqua Limina is a sensory watercolour of a life lived at the water’s edge. Having grown up on the Gold Coast her connection to the ocean is both ancestral and deeply personal, rooted in childhood memories of falling asleep to the sound of waves and the influence of her father, a surfer and artist. Moving away from traditional, distant horizon lines, Lisa seeks to capture the immersive experience of "being in the water." Her watercolours focus on the refractive light and rhythmic patterns experienced while diving beneath the surface, rather than viewing the ocean from the shore. This shift toward abstraction is inspired by the bold, patterned legacy of wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst, whose work taught Lisa the power of negative space and the beauty of "the white that is left”. For Lisa, the fluid medium of watercolour is the perfect vehicle to express the restorative power of the sea. Her paintings act as an invitation to dive into those translucent layers, reflecting both the evolving identity of the Gold Coast and the timeless, fluid energy of the Pacific Ocean.