Bronte Naylor's 'Muscle Memory' a highlight of Maitland Regional Art Gallery's Upriver Downriver

Her work Muscle Memory is a large painting, which depicts skateboarders interacting with the natural environment by the Hunter River in Maitland.

The artwork is a deep dive into erosion, humanity's effect on the environment and the idea of repetition without conscious effort.

Ms Naylor said she chooses to face the way urbanism has changed public spaces, and is interested by the overlap between street culture, public space and the environment.

"I would rather face urbanism as it is, rather than an ideal of the natural world that colonialists and settlers have erased," she said.

"You can't paint a picture of a bird and be stoked about the Hunter River if you've destroyed it, and that's where the skating comes in."

Ms Naylor's work shows skateboarders skating on a camphor laurel tree, which is an introduced invasive species.

"I kind of liked that erosion of the skaters, eroding urbanism as well, eroding little bit by little bit the bitumen under the tree, and that continual force of someone just hurtling themselves in a movement," she said.

"It's interesting to me because their body becomes this fluid thing, the same with the water in the Hunter River."

The painting took about four weeks, including time taken to scout the site with the skateboarders.

Upriver Downriver celebrates the community of artists in our region, connected geographically by the mighty Hunter River.

Ms Naylor said it's 'wild' to be featured in the exhibition alongside so many other great Hunter artists.

"It's very humbling, especially because some of my mentors are in this show," she said.

"This show is so powerful, and I'm so glad it's not like a happy la-di-da landscape show, it's very moody and dark. I like it."

Don't miss Upriver Downriver, which is in its last weeks at Maitland Regional Art Gallery until Sunday, August 13. Visit mrag.org.au/exhibition/upriver-downriver for a full list of participating artists.

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