BETRA FRAVAL Holding it lightly (after Sidney Nolan's 'Emma Minnie à Beckett "Ai Nostri Monti”' 1982) 2025 oil on linen 112 x 138 cm

Holding Things Lightly
Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Collingwood, Australia
1 – 18 October 2025

Words by Anita King
As an artist in residence at Bundanon, Betra Fraval embraced the landscape’s shifting atmospheres—misty walks along the Shoalhaven River, brisk swims, and the freedom to experiment with her medium. The paintings that have flowed from this time respond to the landscape with bright, open gestures, and a palpable sense of release.
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Paint spreads, soaks, and diffuses across raw linen. Forms dissolve and drift toward abstraction. The exposed linen is as integral to her compositions as coloured marks. Figures appear faintly and gestures remain open, resisting containment. In these paintings, Fraval sheds the responsibility of representation and steps toward an embodied practice, embracing the love of painting itself. Holding Things Lightly is an opening to atmosphere, to presence through absence, and to the simple joy of paint moving across raw linen. These are works that hold the world lightly, and invite us to loosen our grip, to step into the mist and let it carry us.

BETRA FRAVAL A place to escape 2025 oil on linen 138 x 112 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Wading out (deep valley) 2025 oil on linen 138 x 112 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Graphic landscape (Bundanon) 2025 oil on linen 91.5 x 81.5 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Misty morning 2025 oil on linen 91.5 x 81.5 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Taking flight 2025 oil on linen 91.5 x 81.5 cm

BETRA FRAVAL The golden hour 2025 oil on linen 91.5 x 81.5 cm

BETRA FRAVAL A place to get lost in 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Bundanon (after Nolan) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Bundanon landscape (making marks 2) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Graphic landscape (Bundanon 2) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Graphic landscape (riverside) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Heavy to hold 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Holding things lightly (graphic landscape) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Letting go 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL River's edge 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL River's edge 2 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Riverside 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Still the mind 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Taking flight 2 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Wading (misty morning) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Wading out (blue) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Wading out (dissolving forms) 2025 synthetic polymer on linen 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Wading out (yellow) 2025 oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Bundanon landscape (after Nolan) 2025 oil on linen 30 x 25 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Bundanon landscape (Earie Park rockface) 2025 oil on linen 30 x 25 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Misty morning (Shoalhaven) 2025 oil on linen 30 x 25 cm

BETRA FRAVAL Making marks 2025 oil on linen 30 x 25 cm