Sara Langdon
Silent in the Trees (The Signalman’s House)
Acrylic on Board
300 x 300 mm
Sold
Halfway down the southern slopes of Takarunga / Mt Victoria, Devonport, the old Signalman’s House has been observing the landscape since 1898, the year it was commissioned by the Auckland Harbour Board and designed by architect Edward Bartley. Built in the style of a New Zealand Victorian ‘corner bay’ villa with a few variations, it is now the Michael King Writers Centre.
Contemporary landscape artist Sara Langdon named her painting featuring this historic landmark ‘Silent in the Trees’, after a lyric from one of her son’s favourite bands. The painting is part of a body of new works that will be on display in the artist’s 2023 exhibition, ‘Abiding’.
Sara Langdon is a New Zealand-based contemporary landscape artist whose work offers a deeply personal and nuanced exploration of the natural world. Her paintings are not merely a replication of the landscape, but rather a thoughtful and emotive response to the beauty she encounters within it. Langdon’s signature approach combines her appreciation for both the vast and the intimate aspects of nature, particularly the striking mountainous and volcanic landscapes that surround her home in Auckland. She says, “This exploration [of the landscape] centres around the importance of place as a cornerstone in our individual and shared stories of connection to the landscapes which become part of our identity and create a feeling of belonging.”