A Poem of the Sea

12 December 2025 to 1 February 2026

A Poem of the Sea is artist, Sally Simpson’s exploration, through the metaphor of water, of humanity's relationship with the natural world. It is also a celebration and a demonstration of the expressive power innate in the act of drawing. The artist articulates the metaphor of humanity’s ongoing relationship with suspension or suspense, as evoked by bodies in water.

The shoreline, where land and sea continuously act on one another, exemplifies the relationship with timelessness and change. The transparency and robustness of drafting film dissolves the boundaries between the place and act of drawing, immersing the artist in the flux between land, sea and self.

A human can only survive for moments underwater, yet immersed we are suspended between life and death, and we lose connection with the gravity that hinges us to the rest of the world. It is both an unnatural and natural state with many associations. The expression of the feeling of being within water evokes the loss of the defined boundaries of the self and all the paradoxes it contains. The artist’s relationship with water is both wonder and anxiety.

A Poem of the Sea is curated by Peter Haynes.

About Sally Simpson
Sally grew up by the sea in Adelaide and now lives on a small farm outside of Canberra. She began studying at the South Australian School of Art in 1982, graduating at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney, and completed a Master of Philosophy in Sculpture at Australian National University School of Art in 2012.

A finalist in many of the major art awards, Sally has won the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize and the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize. Her work in the Dobel Drawing Prize 2025 is currently touring regional galleries. The enduring theme of her artworks is the interactions of humans with the environment at a particular point in time.

Sally is represented by Grainger Gallery, Canberra.

OPENING EVENT 6pm – 8pm, Friday 12 December 2025
RSVP via Eventbrite or email cowraartgallery@cowra.nsw.gov.au

_{IMAGE ABOVE Sally Simpson, An uncertain moment #2, 2024, charcoal on drafting film
IMAGE BELOW Sally Simpson, Shoreline, 2022, Graphite on 5 sheets of drafting film}