Pictures of the Floating World: Kerry Inkster’s Women Underwater Meet Hokusai

Around 1831, Katsushika Hokusai printed a wave the whole world still recognises. Almost two centuries later, an Australian artist has dived beneath it.

Kerry Inkster has spent more than a decade painting women underwater: suspended, weightless, free. Her newest works, a series of small Ukiyo-e-inspired panels in acrylic, rice paper and gold, have just arrived at KAB Gallery. They may be the most personal pieces she has ever made, and they are a beautiful, accessible way to start collecting her work.

Have you ever felt like you were holding your breath? Waiting for permission to take up a little more space? Then you already understand Kerry’s paintings. Every woman she paints has found the place where she can finally let go and float.

It’s never too late to dive in

Kerry grew up in a small town in South Australia, captivated by pictures but told that art wasn’t a real career. So she put it aside. It wasn’t until her thirties, as a wife and mother, that she walked into a drawing class and found her way back.

She studied part-time for more than a decade while raising her family and graduated from the University of South Australia in 2012 with a university medal for outstanding achievement. The following year she was selected for the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition. Since then she has been a finalist in the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize (2024) and the Bluethumb Art Prize (2021) and has had a very successful international solo exhibition in Germany.

A series that began as a way to breathe again

Kerry began her Women Underwater series in 2014. Since then it has travelled with her through four studios on two continents, two marriages and an artist residency in Germany in 2024. She describes it as “a visual journal of sorts”.

See every available painting in Kerry’s online catalogue (priced from $545), or visit the gallery to see them in person and the KAB Gallery team will help you choose.

“This series transcends the surface notion of women and water; it delves into the natural world as a powerful space for transformation, refuge, and self-recognition for women.”

For Kerry Inkster, water symbolises cleansing, renewal, freedom and weightlessness. What started as a desire to paint her favourite subject in her favourite setting became something deeper: a cathartic way to break free from a suffocating past relationship. Each painting, she says, “became imbued with a sense of liberation and an uplifting spirit.”

Her mission is simple and powerful: to make art for quiet women who have been told to be smaller, so they remember they have something powerful and valuable to offer the world.

The woman who cried in front of a painting

Kerry’s favourite career moment didn’t involve an award. A woman stood in front of one of her paintings and began to cry. She didn’t speak English, so her son translated: the painting reminded her of her younger self.

“My greatest joy comes from uplifting other women through my art.”

That is the magic of an original artwork. It isn’t just something to fill a wall. It is something you look at every morning that quietly reminds you who you are.

Pictures of the floating world

Ukiyo-e, the Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (17th to 19th centuries), translates as “pictures of the floating world”. For an artist who has spent years painting women floating in water, the connection was irresistible. Kerry Inkster’s love of printmaking and her travels through Japan, with its architecture and art, led her to bring the two worlds together.

Love it? Buy the original artwork online for $545 or visit the gallery to see it in person.

Pearls beneath the Indigo

How does she do it?

Each panel goes through six stages, which is why you won’t find another like it.

1. The photograph. Each piece begins with an underwater photograph of Kerry’s daughter, taken at a thermal spring in the Northern Territory.
2. The sketch. In her sketchbook, Kerry simplifies the shapes into the flowing lines of Ukiyo-e.
3. The rice paper. The final drawing is printed onto Japanese rice paper and adhered to a wooden panel, creating a soft, wrinkled texture you can see and feel up close.
4. The colour. A loose colour wash comes first, then the final image is painted in acrylic. Colour is Kerry’s favourite stage, the one that “brings the piece to life”.
5. The gold. Gold paint and gold foil add shimmer and texture.
6. The signature. Kerry Inkster signs each panel in Japanese characters meaning “ink well” and “spring”: a playful translation of her surname, Inkster.

Proudly, obviously handmade

As AI-generated images flood the internet, Kerry has made a deliberate choice: she is making her work more textural, more layered and more unmistakably human.

“I believe that creating something that is obviously handmade will help combat the digitally made artwork that is flowing heavily into the art world.”

That is exactly what you get when you own one of these panels: real rice paper, real gold, real brushstrokes, and a story no algorithm could ever invent.

She Let the Water Carry Her

Take our advice: why these panels make a smart first original

• One of a kind. Each panel is an original. No prints, no editions.
• Ready to hang. Painted on a wood panel with deep 4.3 cm edges for a contemporary frameless finish. Signed and dated on the back.
• Perfect size. At 25.4 x 20.3 cm they suit a bedside, bookshelf or powder room, or hang two or three together as a set.
• Easy to own. AUD $545, or 4 payments of $136.25 with buy now, pay later.
• A gift with meaning. For a sister, a daughter, a best friend, or yourself: a reminder to stop holding your breath.

Found the one? Reserve it today.

Each work is one of a kind. Call 1300 78 7773 or click Add to Cart on the artwork page.

About the author

Kerry-Anne Blanket

Director & Curator - KAB Gallery

KAB Gallery’s Kerry-Anne Blanket holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and two Masters degrees (Hons) from the University of Sydney. With an extensive career in art education along with the management of museums and investment art galleries, Kerry-Anne can offer premier art consulting to her clients and source specially requested works. 

She has a keen eye for detail, comprehensive art market knowledge and a love of all things beautiful. Kerry-Anne works directly with artists and collectors alike to curate interesting and eclectic exhibitions.