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Carly Le Cerf is a landscape painter living and working in Kwoorabup (Denmark), Western Australia, on Menang Noongar Country. Working with encaustic wax and oil paint, she creates richly layered works that emerge from immersive experiences in the landscape. Her practice moves between painting en plein air, responding directly to the sensory experience of place, and the studio, where these encounters are transformed into larger, immersive works in oil and wax. Grounded in extended periods of observation, walking, drawing, painting and recording on Country, Le Cerf gathers impressions that later inform complex compositions built through layers of paint and wax. Through processes of layering, carving and scraping, she creates paintings that seek to convey not only the appearance of a landscape, but the emotional and sensory experience of being within it.

Working across diverse Australian environments, including the Great Southern region of Western Australia, the Pilbara, the MacDonnell Ranges and the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Le Cerf explores themes of connection, memory, environmental change and humanity's relationship with the natural world. Her work is informed by a deep engagement with place and an enduring fascination with landscapes that evoke a sense of wonder, mystery and connection.

Drawn to ecologically significant and sensitive landscapes, Le Cerf develops projects through immersive fieldwork and collaboration with organisations committed to conservation and ecological restoration. Her ongoing relationship with initiatives such as Gondwana Link reflects a commitment to understanding the ecological, cultural and historical narratives embedded within the landscapes she paints. Working between direct observation and memory, she creates layered and immersive works that evoke the experience of being within a landscape, encouraging viewers to slow down, look closely and reconnect with the natural world.

Since 2008, Le Cerf has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and internationally, including exhibitions in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Berlin. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions with Michael Reid Sydney and Michael Reid Murrurundi, featured at Sydney Contemporary, and included in significant regional exhibitions including South West Art Now. In 2024 she completed a residency at Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives (BigCi) in the Blue Mountains, supported by Regional Arts Australia, resulting in a major new body of work inspired by the region. Her paintings are held in private collections throughout Australia and internationally and are recognised for their distinctive materiality, luminosity and emotional resonance.

Le Cerf's current trajectory extends beyond painting into interdisciplinary collaborations that explore the relationship between landscape, memory and sensory experience. She is increasingly incorporating sound into her practice through collaborations with composer and sound artist Jean-Michel Maujean, creating immersive works that deepen audience engagement with place. Alongside her studio practice, she is expanding her role as a curator and facilitator, bringing artists together to engage with significant landscapes through residencies, collaborative projects and place-based creative exchanges. Through painting, curation and collaboration, Le Cerf seeks to foster deeper connections between people, place and the ecological and cultural narratives that shape Australia's environments.

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Gallery Representation:

Michael Reid Sydney/Berlin