Greg Wood: Traversing
This new body of work by Greg Wood evokes the painter’s deep and enduring connection to Lutruwita/Tasmania. Since studying at the University of Tasmania’s School of Art, Wood has regarded the island as a kind of beacon—a place that continually calls him back. In his most recent return, facilitated by an artist residency at Salamanca artist studios, Wood spent time traversing the engulfing mountain ranges, dense forests, and wild beaches.
This deep connection to place informs both the subject and structure of the works. Encountering them replicates the feeling of being led to someone’s favourite spot—a secret swimming hole or the best vista —but go looking for one of these sites and you won’t find it. Instead, like other paintings in Wood’s oeuvre, these landscapes are reconstructions of place as it is felt and remembered.
Wood's practice is recognisable for his attention to subtle shifts in the landscape, and in particular the sky. He invites us to pay attention to the intangible: the quality of light, the texture of air, the changing mood of the clouds. Indeed, Wood’s paintings remind us that the sky is not merely a backdrop, but a carrier of information. It holds frequencies, atmospheres, and silent transmissions that shape our emotional and sensory experience of place.
Across each painting Wood introduces brief moments of clarity—paint scraped thinly across the surface, or densely accumulating in careful layers— offers glimpses of form and movement but resists full articulation. It is this ambiguity that holds the viewer’s attention and triggers their curiosity. We find ourselves searching the painting for something solid, and in doing so, we become absorbed.
These immersive effects are further enhanced through shifts in perspective. Throughout Traversing, Wood guides us through multiple vantage points. In one moment, we are on a mountain trail, hemmed in by scrub, leaves and twigs crunching underfoot. In the next, our perspective shifts; we are now distanced, viewing the mountain or a body of water as part of a broader terrain.
These shifts create a rhythm across the works. It is a movement that mirrors the dynamic qualities of looking and walking—of taking in a landscape with our peripheral vision and focusing on the detail of a leaf with foveal vision. Wood’s paintings remind us to slow down and truly look, not with a passing glance, but with the kind of deep, attentive seeing that feels as though it quenches a thirst.
Amelia Wallin
Dja Dja Wurrung land, 2025
Born in Melbourne 1976, Greg Wood studied fine arts at Hobart School of Art and now lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Central Victorian Goldfields. Wood has enjoyed a full-time dedicated art practice for many years and has participated in Artist in Residency programs both Tasmania and in Brussels.
With an extensive exhibition history including both solo and curated exhibitions, Wood's work has been included in several important Australian award exhibitions including the John Glover Prize, Tattersalls Prize, Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale Art Prize, Kate Derum Award and most recently winner of the John Leslie Art Prize 2022.
Wood’s work is held in important private and public collections, including the Gippsland Art Gallery, the Joyce Nissan and Peter Mac Art collections.
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Greg WoodV43 Traversing, 2024oil on linen, framed107 x 102 cm (stretcher size)Sold
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Greg WoodV16 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed61.2 x 45.8 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV15 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed61.2 x 45.8 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV35 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed20.2 x 25.2 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV17 Traversing, 2024oil on linen, framed56.3 x 76.4 cm (board size)AU$ 6,500.00
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Greg WoodV11 Traversing , 2024oil on linen board, framed20.2 x 25.2 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV42Traversing, 2025oil on linen, framed103.3 x 83 cm (stretcher size)AU$ 9,500.00
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Greg WoodV9 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed50.9 x 50.9 cm (board size)AU$ 4,350.00
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Greg WoodV12 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed40.7 x 30.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV13 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed40.7 x 30.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV20 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed40.6 x 51.2 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV4 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed40.7 x 30.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV44 Traversing, 2025oil on linen, framed152.5 x 167.5cm (stretcher size)AU$ 22,900.00
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Greg WoodV7 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed30.6 x 30.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV8 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed50.9 x 50.9 cm (board size)AU$ 4,350.00
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Greg WoodV1 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed25.3 x 30.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV2 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed30.6 x 30.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV10 Traversing, 2024oil on linen board, framed51.2 x 40.6 cm (board size)Sold
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Greg WoodV27 Traversing, 2024oil on linen, framedtriptych: 107 x 203.8 cm (approx install size)AU$ 20,950.00