grandmother's song 2007

grandmother’s song 2007 was made after the death of Watson’s grandmother, Grace Isaacson. This deeply personal and elegiac painting is imbued with grief, longing and pride for a matriarch who played a pivotal role in Watson’s development as a person and artist.

The work features ghostly elements — outlines of Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill Gorge), a bailer shell, pulsating and energising whorls, native vegetation, and a spectral presence — allowing Watson to release her grandmother back to Waanyi Country. Watson says of her grandmother:

She still inspires me. The stories she shared with me as a child allowed me to learn from the ground up — to feel the power of the land under my feet that resonates through my body and connects me to Country.