My name is Susan Nethercote (she/her) and I am a painter living on unceded Wadawurrung Land in Ballarat, Australia

My artwork examines the relationship between the cultivation of flowers and botanicals, and the ways we seek to create a sense of home, place, and spiritual connection through both domestic and public gardens and the broader landscape.

I draw on my local environment to explore the interweaving of botany, architecture, history, and culture experienced in cultivated outdoor areas. My work brings into quiet consideration the tensions between the beauty of carefully crafted gardens comprising introduced species, and the evidence of colonialism present in the inner-suburban and rural landscape.

With a special interest in the history of female artists’ interaction with flowers, botanicals and gardens, my work reflects directly on the unique ways they have approached this subject matter in their art practice.  This is also the research focus of my Master of Arts (Visual Art) commencing 2024 at Federation University.