How the Light Gets In
$10,000 Acquisitive Prize
Seabastion Toast
How the Light Gets In 2023
Portrait of Karlee Rawkins
Oil on canvas
181 x 121 cm
About the Artwork
Over two decades ago, Karlee Rawkins and I embarked on our undergraduate journey together. While life led us down different roads, fate has brought us back to the same community once more.
In creating this portrait, I sought to capture the essence of Karlee’s world – a world illuminated by the winter light streaming through the windows of her home. This play of light and nature serves as a symbolic representation of her work, which delves into the profound connections between wildlife, nature, and the human psyche.
Amid the chaos of family life, she radiates a meditative serenity, an unwavering devotion to her craft always at the forefront of her mind. Her life and art are inseparable, a testament to her enduring commitment.
In the distant doorway, you’ll find her son’s silhouette, a powerful symbol of her transformation from a solitary studio artist to a loving mother, disability-rights advocate and artist.
About the Artist
Seabastion Toast lives and works on the mid-North Coast of NSW.
Among her achievements, she recently won the $10,000 Darcy Doyle Landscape Award for the second time. In 2023, she won the People’s Choice Award at both the Portia Geach and the Sunshine Coast Art Prizes. She was recently in the top eight finalists in the Evelyn Chapman Award, won two awards at the 2019 Glover Prize, and is regularly a finalist in many prominent art prizes nationwide, including the National Still Life Award, Doug Moran and Mosman Awards.
Seabastion holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Southern Cross University, which included a very influential exchange to the Pratt Institute in New York. She is represented by Anthea Polson Art Gallery on the Gold Coast. Other than painting, she also loves running up mountains, surfing, her husband, and dog Audrey.