“The act of foraging organic materials has a become a ritualised entry into my work, valued as much for its process as its outcome.”
STUDIO. Cloudstone Residency in Lutruwita (Tasmania)
INTRODUCTION.
Mirri Leven
commonspace is an ongoing exhibition series dedicated to presenting contemporary artists whose practices explore materiality, process and place. While Art Leven’s primary focus remains First Nations art, commonspace creates a platform for broader artistic dialogue. Rather than centring on an artist’s background, the series considers artistic approach—how each artist responds to the world around them through their chosen medium and practice.
Emily’s work was first introduced to Art Leven through the 2025 Paddington Art Prize, where she was selected as the recipient of the Art Leven Award. It was only afterwards that she was announced as the overall winner of the Paddington Art Prize, making the decision feel all the more affirming. Féth Fíada, Emily’s first solo exhibition with Art Leven, is presented as part of the ongoing relationship established through that award.
Emily’s work is a natural inclusion within this series. It is underpinned by a thoughtful and deeply considered approach to painting, where process is as significant as the finished work itself. Combining acrylic paint with charcoal, ash, eucalyptus, pine needles and naturally derived pigments extracted from the landscape, her practice reflects a genuine curiosity for the possibilities of material and painting.
Féth Fíada continues the commonspace series with a body of work that rewards time and attention. The works have a quiet presence that gradually reveals their complexity, creating a gentle sense of immersion that lingers long after the first encounter.
INTRODUCTION. Mirri Leven
ESSAY. Marking the Threshold Althea Kuzman
ARTWORKS.
Morning Mist Hath Clung
The Man Who Got Lost On The Cliff Part 2
The Hind Mist Was Fore Mist And The Fore Mist Was Hind Mist 17:14 17:19 To Greet The Mist That Falls Cool Soft Mist, Her Face Kissed 14:03 10:15 Upon Them From The Skies 14:31 9:35 The Knower 7:25 10:24 Lost In the Mist
The Man Who Got Lost On The Cliff 8:21 8:32
ESSAY. Marking the Threshold Althea Kuzman
Emily Ebbs is an artist based on Gadigal land whose paintings resemble a form of alchemy. This body of work was a seedling of an idea stemming from a fascination with mist. Ebbs developed an interest in the Irish folklore of féth fíada - the magical druid mist that acted as protection and sacred concealment. Ebbs’ drive to explore this idea came from the freedom of the Cloudstone Residency in Lutruwita (Tasmania), where Ebbs lived among the tall reaching trees, the weaving mist, and the bounty of pigment nature can provide.
Each morning Ebbs was greeted by the mist on long walks in nature that surrounded the residency. On these walks, the mist was her company, watching her revel in this protective cloak whilst picking fallen organic material from the ground - fallen pine, eucalyptus, charcoal and ash from the burnt remains of trees. The bright purple hues of the Kangaroo Apple flower made their way back to the studio to be mixed with lemon and bi-carb soda, leaving a blue wash to be experimented with. Mixing natural elements with paint, Ebbs works to include the environment that surrounds her. After painting the canvas, she allows nature to run its course by leaving the canvas outside for the elements to interact with her painterly gestures.
Permeation is central to these works, both in the process of their creation and their mist-like surfaces. Mist in a landscape gives the appearance of rising up from the grass, embedding itself between the grooves and the lulls of the rolling hills; it shifts, shimmers and filters through the tall trees. It is both everywhere and nowhere at all. It cannot be touched, and it cannot stay. Even an attempt to capture mist through a camera lens does not interpret its affect. Ebbs’ work in this show conveys an attempt to capture the féth fíada that morphs through the landscape. It is captured both in material and in feeling. Mist is mystical. It creates a sense of awe whilst being slippery and ambiguous. There is something uncanny about mist, in the way it is simultaneously opaque and transparent. It is visually hard in the sense that it obscures your line of sight, but soft because you can move through it with ease. There is a visual dissonance.
Ebbs’ work encompasses the duality of an evasive and non-haptic subject matter. These works are soft like mist, they compel and draw you in and it is captured into a two dimensional surface, one you cannot move past.
Ebbs’ tools for experimentation in colour and material are of the earth, and are returned there too. She boils fallen eucalyptus leaves to create a wash, then places the leaves back where she once found them. This process is grounding, it situates the studio, the body, and the landscape, which allows the creative process to flow for Ebbs. The scent of the boiling eucalyptus has become a starting ritual. The hue it extracts is earthly, and mixing it with paint and other pigments makes its liquidity unpredictable. Ebbs’ process is intuitive and organic - never quite knowing where the pigment will seep down the canvas.
These works act as a veil, between our eyes and Ebbs’ hand; between her ritual and our observation. They capture her experience of the body in a landscape, the feeling of immersion, the feeling of longing to understand the mysticism of nature, and to pierce the veil. Her works are the mist, they’re of the mist, and they are us - watching the mist but never quite passing the threshold.
ALTHEA KUZMAN.
EMILY EBBS
Morning Mist Hath Clung, 2026
240.5 x 302 cm
Tasmanian blue gum, kangaroo apple flower, lemon, bi-carb soda, pine ash, beeswax and acrylic on Canvas
$11,000 | Framed $12,600
“Although the impact of mixing natural dyes with paint is visually subtle, this process holds conceptual significance, allowing the physical presence of the surrounding environment to be directly incorporated into my works.”
EMILY EBBS
The Man Who Got Lost On The Cliff Part 2, 2026
153 x 122 cm
blue gum, pine ash, beeswax, acrylic on canvas
$5,300 | Framed: $6,100
EMILY EBBS
The Hind Mist Was Fore Mist And The Fore Mist Was Hind Mist, 2026 122 x 132.5 cm blue gum, thread, pine ash, acrylic on canvas
$4,500 | Framed $5,260
EMILY EBBS
17:14, 2026
25 x 33.5 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, shortpod mustard, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
17:19, 2026
22 x 32 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
To Greet The Mist That Falls, 2026
184 x 152.5 cm blue gum, beeswax and acrylic on canvas
$6,600 | Framed $7,600
“Féth Fíada is physically imbued in the works by leaving the works out in the morning mist to allow them to touch the veil”
EMILY EBBS
Cool Soft Mist, Her Face Kissed, 2026
153.5 x 199 cm blue gum, shortpod mustard, kangaroo apple flower, beeswax, acrylic on canvas
$8,000 | Framed $9,000
EMILY EBBS
14:03, 2026
26 x 29 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
10:15, 2026
22 x 2262 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, stitching, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
Upon Them From The Skies, 2026
183.5 x 152.5 cm blue gum, beeswax, acrylic on canvas
$6,600 | Framed $7,600
EMILY EBBS
14:31, 2026
21 x 23 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
9:35, 2026
21 x 30 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
The Knower, 2026 153 x 122 cm blue gum, rain water, beeswax and acrylic on canvas #23758
$5,200 | Framed $6,000
EMILY EBBS
7:25, 2026
21.5 x 30.5 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, acrylic on canvas
Framed: $1,100
EMILY EBBS
10:24, 2026
14.5 x 27.5 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, kangaroo apple flower, lemon, bi-carb soda, oregano, shortpod mustard, acrylic on canvas
Framed: $1,100
EMILY EBBS
Lost In the Mist, 2026
153 x 122 cm
eucalyptus dye and acrylic on canvas
$5,200 | Framed $6,000
“The works are not direct representations of the landscape but rather embodiments of a landscape and its felt experience.”
EMILY EBBS
The Man Who Got Lost On The Cliff, 2026
153 x 122.5 cm
gum, pine ash, beeswax, acrylic on canvas
$5,300 | Framed $6,100
blue
EMILY EBBS
8:21, 2026
21 x 26.5 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed) blue gum, acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
EMILY EBBS
8:32, 2026
27 x 31 cm; 38 x 46 cm (framed)
blue gum, pine ash, kangaroo apple flower, shorted mustard and acrylic on canvas
Framed $1,100
ARTIST CV & BIO.
Emily Ebbs
Emily Ebbs is a visual artist living and working on Gadigal land (Sydney), Australia. Her process-based practice explores stain as both material and metaphor, evoking the emotional residue of memory through the language of staining.
She combines traditional painting materials with organic elements from her surroundings, leaving traces of the landscape embedded within the work itself. In doing so, the landscape is repositioned not as the subject, but as a quiet collaborator.
Central to her practice is the production of the stain through a process of collecting and boiling organic matter, which is then used in place of water to mix with paint. While materially subtle in its visual impact, this labour-intensive process holds conceptual significance, allowing the physical presence of the surrounding environment to be directly incorporated into the work. The act of foraging and preparation becomes a ritualised entry point, valued as much for its process as its outcome. The sensory dimensions of this method are integral. The natural aromas released through boiling and painting create a grounding and comforting atmosphere, fostering a heightened sense of presence and embodied awareness that informs the making of the work.
Working on large unstretched canvases placed on the floor, Ebbs approaches painting as a bodily and intuitive act. The surface becomes a site of connection between her external environment and internal imaginings, where gestures of staining and layering unfold.
Each work emerges as both an intimate portrait and an act of embodied remembering, holding within it the physical and emotional traces of its making.
PRIZES & AWARDS
2025 Winner of the Paddington Art Prize
Winner of the Art Leven Gallery Exhibition Award
Finalist in the Eckersleys Art Prize
Finalist in the Blacktown City Art Prize
2023 Finalist in the Mosman Art Prize
2022 The Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olly Art Centre
Nancy Fairfax (AIR) award
The Yves Hernot painting award
RESIDENCIES
2026 Cloud Stone Residency, Hobart, Tasmania
Kincoppal-Rose Bay School Artist In Residency Program, Vaucluse
2025 The Corridor Project, Wyangala
2024 The Corridor Project, Wyangala
2023 The Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olly Art Centre Nancy
Fairfax Artist in Residence, Murwillumbah
PUBLICATIONS
2025 Art Almanac, Emily Ebbs wins 2025 Paddington Art Prize
Home and Garden Magazine January Issue
2024 Artist profile Magazine, 67th issue, Process article
2022 Push Magazine, Issue 2 Emily ebbs / Artist, written by Scarlett Clark
2020 Monster Children, 10 Best Exhibition to see in Sydney this month written by Chloe Borich
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Threshold, Hake, House of Art, Dee Why
Slow Motions, Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah
2023 Residue, Hake, House of Art, Dee Why
Dip Beneath the Horizon, Artereal Gallery, Rozelle
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Slow Translation, Loaf Gallery, Wentworth Falls
The Unbound Art Show, Barnardos, The Garden Gallery, The Botanical Gardens, Sydney
2025 Synergy, Hake House of Art, Dee Why When Life Gives You Lemon, Make Colour, Rofe St Gallery, Leichhardt
World Making / The Me I Saw, Hake House of Art, Dee Why
2024 Err and Lean Forward, Puzzles, Chippendale
Radiant Field, CBD Gallery, Sydney
2022 National Art School Postgraduate Exhibition, National Art School, Darlinghurst
Substratum, Woollahra Gallery, Woollahra Group Show 02, Abstract Thought Gallery, Darlinghurst
Dancing With No Music, Ambush Gallery, Ultimo
2020 National Art School Graduate Exhibition, National Art School
STUIDO INSITU.