26 March — 29 May Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

Girt by Sea is an exhibition of new seascape paintings by Mornington Peninsula based artist Neil Williams. The idea behind these works began in May 2021 when Williams was an artist in residence at the Police Point Artist in Residence program.

Living in close proximity to the Quarantine Station at Point Nepean, Neil began imagining spending months at sea on the journey to a new life in Australia. What it must have been like living in dark, confined galleys on a ship amongst diseases like typhoid and dysentry, losing loved ones along the way, to finally arrive and be detained in quarantine until the infection had passed. These thoughts led him to look out from the land and move his focus to the sea, exploring the coastline from Flinders, along Bass Strait, around to Point Nepean.

These seascapes are timeless, the view unchanged over hundreds of years. Standing on the beaches or cliff tops you can pause and imagine oceans past, and be reminded that we are part of something continuous.