This exhibition is presented in two parts allowing for a diverse studio presentation and new works from, ‘Painted Landscape # Whispering the Flame’. Through an expanded painting practice Payne continues to investigate the way human inhabitation in the 21st century has dramatic effects on the natural environment. In a time of global warming and much change, the cause and effects of climate change is an ongoing conversation and challenge. One of the aims of contemporary painting is to establish the iconographic vocabulary and aesthetic means to represent important or uncertain moments in the condition of human interaction in the environment. I feel that my commitment to a painting practice is like an act of whispering a flame. In a global context my voice may seem to be but a whisper, but I have no doubt that it is fueled by a flame adding to a multitude of flames moving toward change. - Paula Payne