Painting the Four Elements Through Mixed Media

The four classical elements — earth, air, fire, and water — have served as a creative compass for painters, poets, and shamans across countless traditions. In Australia, these forces feel especially tangible: the red dust of the Outback, the salt breeze sweeping through Sydney Harbour, the heat shimmer rising above Uluru at dusk, and the tides that pulse through the Great Barrier Reef. Mixed media offers a way to honour all of them on a single surface, layering pigment, paper, fabric, and natural materials until the painting itself becomes a small ceremony.

Imelda Almqvist works at the intersection of sacred art and personal mythology, drawing on stories from the Dreamtime alongside Northern European and Mesopotamian sources. Her mixed-media pieces rarely sit still on the wall — they breathe, smoulder, and sometimes seem to pour. Below, she walks through how each element takes shape in the studio, and how ancient symbolism can meet contemporary practice in unexpected ways.

Earth: Ochre, Bark, and the Red Centre

Earth in Imelda's practice is rarely just brown. She begins many ground layers with real ochre sourced from pigment suppliers who work with traditional miners in the Kimberley and Central Australia. The colour is unpredictable — ranging from deep oxblood to soft mustard — and it anchors the entire composition in something older than the canvas itself. Crushed bark, coffee grounds, and even ash from ceremonial fires are pressed into gesso to create texture that catches the light like cracked desert pavement after a long dry season.

For Australian artists especially, the element of earth carries the weight of the oldest continuous painting tradition on the planet. Imelda often references the concentric circle motifs found at sites like the Burrup Peninsula, allowing them to reappear in her own compositions as symbols of waterholes, gathering places, and the journeys of ancestral beings. The result is a layered conversation between ancient country and contemporary inner world.

Air: Breath, Birdsong, and the Lettering of Wind

Air is the most elusive element to paint, which is precisely why Imelda enjoys working with it. She uses fine graphite, pale washes, and stitched thread to suggest movement — the kind of line a swift traces over a Melbourne rooftop at twilight, or the curve of a letter that seems to float off the page. In several pieces, she has collaged fragments of handwritten poetry, letting the words themselves become wind.

Calligraphy and hand-lettering have shaped her approach more than any formal training ever could. She encourages students to slow down and let the breath lead the hand, treating each stroke as a small ritual. For those wanting to develop their own visual alphabet, a personal lettering practice offers a starting point that complements this element beautifully.

Fire: Transformation, Bushfire, and the Burning of Old Stories

Fire in mixed media is both destructive and generative. Imelda uses scorch marks, gold leaf, and translucent resin to capture the dual nature of flame — what it takes and what it reveals. In the Australian context, fire is a constant companion: the regenerative cycles of the bush, the cultural burning practices of First Nations communities, and the summer awareness of what a single spark can do all feed into how she approaches the colour red on a page.

The element also invites honest self-examination. Painting fire often means confronting what is ready to be released, and that process can attract strong reactions from viewers. If a piece invites honest feedback, it has usually done its work.

Water: Tides, Tears, and the Reef

Water moves through Imelda's work as both subject and material. She dilutes acrylic inks with seawater collected during retreats, pours resin in slow arcs, and embeds tiny shells into pours of blue and green. Visitors who have stood on a boat above the Great Barrier Reef often tell her that her water pieces carry a similar sense of suspended depth — light filtering down through layers that never quite resolve into a single image.

The element of water is also emotional. In shamanic tradition, water carries memory, and Imelda treats it as the medium through which grief, joy, and ancestral wisdom can flow. Her paintings of water often include hidden text or mirrored imagery, rewarding slow looking and patient eyes.

The Alchemical Layering Process

No element works alone in Imelda's studio. A single canvas might begin with earth (ochre and bark), gain structure through air (graphite linework), pass through fire (scorching and gold), and finish in water (resin pour and ink). This alchemical sequence mirrors the way a painting is meant to be read — from ground to atmosphere, from heat to cool release.

The result is rarely a single element but a conversation between them. Those curious to see how this plays out across finished pieces can explore the gallery, where current work is grouped by the dominant element while still showing the others at play.

Sacred Symbols and Personal Mythology

Symbols anchor the elements to specific stories. The spiral, the triangle, the vesica piscis, the serpent — each carries weight across cultures, and Imelda often blends them so the work speaks to a viewer without needing explanation. This is where her shamanic practice meets her painter's hand, and where the training programmes she offers truly begin.

The two-day introductory courses and longer professional paths in London and Pennsylvania are designed for artists who feel called to work with sacred imagery but want a grounded, ethical framework. Anyone interested in this path can learn more through courses on the main site, or simply contact Imelda directly to ask a question.

If a piece here stirred something — a memory of red soil, a breath, a wave, a flame — consider sitting with it longer. Subscribe to the seasonal letters, book a viewing of the available collection, or step into a workshop when one comes to your city. The elements are already moving through you; the painting is simply a way to listen.