Nourished and reflective _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

The land gives with an outstretched hand and Emma Hercus composes from within it. Bush and beaches, fields and forgotten corners unfold in The Foragers.

At Twentysix Gallery, the rituals of gathering, preparing, and sharing food, and the landscapes that hold those memories come to life in oil on canvas until the 21^st of March.

“Hercus’ work invites you to reconnect with stories of sustenance and community, and to consider the emotional and cultural threads that bind us to place,” curator Petra Scheuber says. “Foraging operates as both a literal and symbolic gesture. It speaks to a lineage of living from the land, but also to the act of collecting memories, fragments of childhood, and experiences of place”.

The new portraits are wide-eyed and poignant, with rosy cheeks and head scarves and fur vests. They dip into rich, deep, layered colours for the skies and oceans, while foliage is vivacious, sharp, and encompassing.

For Hercus, “the landscape and its fauna are at her core”, Scheuber says. She “composes her paintings much like a forager moves through landscape: attentive, intuitive, gathering what feels essential”.

The Foragers captures a life sustained by the earth, a bloodline of foragers, and a childhood of lessons in how to continue to do so, Hercus herself adds. “Sustenance from the hunt – sustenance from the community that gathers around the table to share foraged, grown, caught, and collected kai. The gratification in sharing both a meal and a memory”.