From 5 until 28 March 2026, Martin Browne Contemporary in Paddington, Australia presents An Artist’s Garden, a new body of work by New Zealand–born, Melbourne-based painter Sam Michelle. The exhibition brings together a series of still-life paintings shaped by the intimate and evolving relationship between the artist’s garden and her studio practice.

A full-time oil painter, Michelle works from her beautiful studio in Blind Bight, on the coast of Victoria. Her practice is grounded in still life, where she builds layered compositions and quiet narratives using her ever-growing collection of ceramics and textiles. Vessels, patterned fabrics, and carefully chosen objects become staging points for gesture and mood, allowing each painting to unfold as both image and story.

For Michelle, the garden is not separate from painting; it is where each work begins. What initially started as a desire to grow flowers to use as subjects gradually became a daily ritual of care and observation. Each morning, she tends to soil, seedlings, and seasonal blooms at her coastal property, responding to subtle changes in light, weather, and growth. This sustained act of nurturing informs the way she paints, intuitively, attentively, and in rhythm with the natural world.

The still lifes on view capture flowers grown on and around her home, preserving fleeting seasonal moments in oil. Blossoms at their peak, petals beginning to fall, stems curving under their own weight, these quiet transitions are rendered with sensitivity to colour, texture, and gesture. Michelle’s brushwork reflects both immediacy and patience, echoing the slow cycles of cultivation that underpin her practice.

Beyond providing imagery, the garden functions as a space of restoration and mental clarity. It is a place where time expands and perception sharpens, allowing the artist to reconnect with the physical and sensory dimensions of making. Through layered surfaces and nuanced tonal shifts, her paintings meditate on care, resilience, and the quiet nourishment that sustained creative attention can offer.

An Artist’s Garden invites viewers to pause and look closely, reconnecting with the beauty and fragility of the natural world through an art practice rooted in patience and devotion.