An exhibition opening at the Lismore Regional Gallery later this month was inspired by the miraculous world of interconnectivity that exists between trees under the forest floor.

Mullumbimby based artist Emma Walker says her work in The Dark Sublime references the underground intelligence systems of forests where white fungal webs grow out towards other trees.

These fungal systems create a network of communication and exchange, allowing the forest to behave as though it were a single organism.

Her works - which “evoke the relationships, exchange and even love that exists in the soil” - are not planned out but start in much the same way as a forest might, with a laying down of marks that inform those that follow.

The paintings grow, with pioneers creating an environment for a succession of other species, and complementary forms and marks to live side by side.

“In the studio I follow an informed process of trial and error, struggle and epiphany,” she says.

Paint is applied in strokes, drips and pours, layer upon layer, and then it is wiped/scraped back in areas, sanded, and the timber substrate carved into, until the work reaches a point where she can see that it is working and a cohesion forming.

Walker spent part of her childhood on a bushy rural property near Cootamundra, south-west NSW, as well as living in Sydney and sailing and travelling the world with her free-spirited family.

She has work features in several major public and corporate collections and in private collections in Australia, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the US.

For the last 18 years she has lived in the Northern Rivers.

“In this subtropical area, it is easy to imagine that if we left the land to its own devices it would find a new balance,” says Walker.

“Our impatience is that nature follows its own timeline, and the lives of mature trees in a complex ecosystem are so much longer than ours.”

The Dark Sublime by Emma Walker opens at the Lismore Regional Gallery on August 31 and runs until October 20. The official launch will be on September 13 at 6pm and Walker will be speaking about the exhibition on October 10 at 11am.