Samantha Hobson grew up in the small community of Lockhart River, located 800 kilometres north of Cairns. Many of the surrounding areas such as Claudie River, Quintell Beach, Chilli Beach and the Great Barrier Reef are reflected in her painting, and although she has lived in Cairns, she is now back on country in Lockhart River.
Samantha is one of the founding members of the Lockhart River ‘Art Gang’ established in 1995. Alongside imagery of her country, Samantha also paints her community and stories from the ‘old people’. Much of her earlier work focused on specific social issues such as suicide and domestic violence. Her most recent series, Flag Waves explores Australia’s colonial history and ongoing injustices. Whilst Samantha is familiar with exploring the more painful aspects of life, she also produces beautifully tranquil works that speak to her home country in Lockhart River.
Thick layering of paints with bright marine colours are used to reflect Hobson’s memories of life on the reef with fish flashing past, coral, sea grass and the shallow water fading to deep. For the rainforest, majestic greens are used as background with multi-colour linear representations of vines and creeks as foreground.
Hobson’s works are currently held in private and public collections both nationally and internationally including National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Cairns Regional Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, International Education Services (IES), Artbank, The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA and Columbus State University, Georgia, USA.
