In this episode, SAM Curator Caroline Esbenshade sits down with artist Anthea Kemp, recipient of the 2025 Theodore Urbach Landscape Painting Scholarship, to reflect on her time in Shepparton.
From volunteering at the Euroa Arboretum and the Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seed Bank to transforming field observations into large-scale abstract paintings, Anthea shares how immersion, attention, and patience have reshaped her understanding of both art and conservation.
About Anthea Kemp
Anthea Kemp is based in St Kilda, Melbourne. She creates paintings that capture her interest and fascination with nature, and in 2025 became the second artist to be awarded Shepparton Art Museum’s Urbach Landscape Painting Prize and Studio Scholarship. Kemp’s paintings are a blend of representation and abstraction, an intuitive response to nature that distils the interplay of light with the forms she encounters in the landscape. Her works also embody her sense of custodianship and the care she feels for nature. Her interest in conservation has its roots in childhood, growing up on farm and bush land covered protective covenant.
Kemp has presented her work in several solo exhibitions at institutions including Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton, in 2023; and in 2021 at Wangaratta Art Gallery, Wangaratta. She obtained her Masters in Contemporary Art from the VCA, University of Melbourne, Melbourne in 2019 following her Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from RMIT University, Melbourne in 2013.
Top image: Shepparton Art Museum