The Landscape Beyond: Presence

by Olaug Vethal

• Gouache and oil pastels on paper
• 41.5cm by 28.71cm
• 50.5cm by 37.71cm framed
• c. 1995-2005

In The Landscape Beyond: Presence, Olaug Vethal evokes a landscape that feels inhabited by something beyond its physical form. Dark, concentrated shapes emerge against luminous expanses
of yellow and green, suggesting a presence that is sensed rather than fully seen.

Vethal’s fluid washes and instinctive lines dissolve the distinction between landscape and inner experience. Forms hover between recognition and abstraction, as though the visible world carries traces of another, unseen reality.

Here, presence is not necessarily a figure or place, but an energy with a quiet metaphysical force embedded within the landscape, connecting the material world to something beyond it.

This work is currently hung at Spazju A, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta until 25th October 2026 as part of the exhibition ‘Beyond The Visible | The Metaphysical Worlds of Olaug Vethal, curated by Christine Xuereb and in collaboration with Christine X Art Gallery