The works in this exhibition take their shape from the act of ‘stepping in’. When entering in to landscape, often a set of sympathies and desires occur that have parallels in the act of stepping in to literature. Both actions lead to the inhabitation of other worlds. In one sphere, the natural world is revealed at walking pace. Birds and animals come and go, the wind shakes the trees, and in the aerial world above huge clouds process across sky. In the other world, the mind’s eye constructs and expands the entire universe contained within the pages of the novel.  

This dynamic movement between the two worlds means that a dialogue is set up whereby each furthers an understanding of the other. The paintings exhibited here have come about as a response to walking and the idea that layers of history are embedded in landscape.  The prints on the other hand constitute a response to Virgil’s classical text The Aeneid, and the imagined landscape of savage Italy.

Margie Sheppard is a South Australian based artist who lives and works in the Adelaide Hills. Her practice spans 30 years, during which time she has spent lengthy periods working almost exclusively as a printmaker. She is well known for her large densely coloured etchings, and currently divides her time between painting and printmaking.