However, they’re also indications that this place is not-quite-wild, imposing boundary lines across the rolling hills. The fence in Light Simmer separates thick bush from the grassy meadow, the seeding plants in the foreground indicating a rewilding of sorts. In Place of Lingering Thoughts, a lean-to fence follows the line of an ambling creek, a human boundary echoing the natural.

As the exhibition title suggests, Ephemeral Light focusses on the transition between day and night - the moment when shadows lengthen and the hills are bathed in a dusky pink. The resulting scenes are bucolic, almost European. Starting as field sketches and constructed tonal studies, the final oil paintings are created quickly, with the artist capturing the fleeting light through the quick, gestural application of paint.

With the North Esk River and its tributaries dominating the local landscape, the reflective qualities of water feature prominently in this exhibition. As the Day Emerged celebrates golden hour light, a slight background haze hinting at a chilly morning. Soft pink clouds are reflected in the creek, contrasting with the spindly reeds and exposed spiky branches of an adjacent bush. Trails into the Light similarly emphasises the play of light on water, the pooling tracks illuminated against the dark ground.

In Translucent, the watery foreground takes up more than half the canvas, the reflection of a background tree occupying more space than the tree itself. The play of colour in the reflection, particularly the sharp contrast between reflected vegetation and sky reveals How’s preoccupation with the representation of light. Applied with thick strokes of a palette knife, the painted reflection is abstracted when observed up close, but from afar, captures the effect of light on an ever-moving liquid surface. By contrast, the water appears more ominous in Where Rising Water Meets the Setting Sun, where the darkened watery foreground contrasts with the rays of last light on the dry rise beyond.

The challenge of painting close to home has resulted in an exhibition that celebrates an area of Tasmania that is often under-acknowledged and certainly underrepresented in art. Whether it is the remote wilderness or the modified environments seen in this current body of work, How’s paintings communicate a sense of place, capturing the island landscape in its varied forms.