Cecilia Cairns: Out of the Orchard

Cecilia Cairns was born in 1944 and grew up at Merricks North on the Mornington Peninsula. This exhibition celebrates her life as an artist and teacher. It is also a tribute to the apple orchard, her family and the home of her childhood.

The orchard is where she first saw familiar places, friends and family being transformed into works of art. It began the immersive artistic process that has always been at the heart of her work, aligning her creativity with nature and her social values.

Cairns finds energy and inspiration in the tangles of her family orchard. Her paintings illuminate the details of her life; her delight in the colours and shapes of domesticity; the harmony of people who work directly with the natural world and the interaction with the students in her art class. Her work celebrates what she sees in the natural world and opens us, the viewers to where it might take us.