Waterways by Jeanette Muirhead
The current focus of Jeanette’s work is on waterbodies in Canberra and their interactions with people. Under the Residency, this work would expand into the waterways in development and under change around Whitlam and into the Molonglo River Valley. The work would incorporate scenes and objects around these waterpoints, and where able, the interactions with people. The work will form part of a body of work for an exhibition held at the Belconnen Community Arts Centre (at either the December 2025 or March 2026 exhibition).
Jeanette Muirhead is a Canberra based painter. Her practice focuses on being present in the environment, observing and capturing local scenes and moments, typically from the natural world and her surroundings. Her work is influenced by a background in biology and environmental science, which has helped fuel her fascination with the natura world, the effects of colour, light and time, and the interpretation of form.
Her work reveals her strong disposition towards close observation, visual examination and discovery. It has a deep regard for place, encouraging a closer look and reflection of our place within our surroundings – including the juxtaposition of the built and natural. She covers landscape to the microscopic, and broad timescales – either fleeting moments of changing light, nostalgic memories, or geological and evolutionary timescales. The work interprets what she observes as a means of understanding and examining, inviting others to share in her fascination, respect and appreciation for life and the world around us.
In 2024 she was a finalist in the Basil Sellers Acquisitive Art Award and the Mudgee Arts Precinct Portrait Prize. On graduating with a Diploma in Visual Arts in 2023 she received the inaugural Canberra Institute of Technology-Canberra Arts Patrons Organisation Award. She has many years’ experience in national and international environmental policy and management, has a Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Science, has taught undergraduate biological science, and published research and scientific illustrations in Australian and international scientific journals, books and magazines, and in museum exhibitions.
