Walking on our “Rainbow Trail” section of the Warburton Rail Trail, our Wattles spring to life from winter onwards. The Australian green and gold colours and blooms of the various cultivars can differ, bloom across all seasons, but never clash with each other. I painted this Wattle blooming during Winter.
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60x40cm 2020
Winter also brings forth the flowering Grevillea. This Grevillea, within our 5km lockdown zone seen on a clear winter’s morning outside our village library and community space. This painting shines a light on the amazing colours of Australian native flora.
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40x60cm 2020
From storms to the quiet prelude of the morning. This painting was done in late October after the strict Victorian lockdown ended. We were able to journey more than 5km from home we visited the R J Hamer Arboretum at Olinda in the Dandenong Ranges. The R.J. Hamer Arboretum land is a small part of the original Dandenong and Woori Yallock State forest, proclaimed over 110 years ago.
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40x60cm 2020
The north facing lakeside studio is with large deciduous trees on the south side is an ideal location to contemplate the wonders of nature. The summer northerlies bring up choppy waves as the sun lights up the treetops. Autumn has started early this year and the leaves are starting to turn. Summer azaleas and roses continue to bloom, and I suspect a cold winter ahead.
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40x60cm 2020
An early Spring morning, the clouds were inky blue and thickening. The sun low on the horizon threw a cool yellow light. A storm soon arriving. After a warm winter it looked like lower-than-average temperatures were upon us. I wanted an abstracted view of the landscape, the heavily laden clouds, the sunny breaks, the shifts in the wind a glimpse of the built environment, all of which added to a sense of the drama of the approaching storm. The wonder of nature’s power.
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40x60cm 2020
It's October 2020. Lockdown continues and our October birthdays approach and another milestone home alone. The roses are blooming, flowers abound from our garden and from gifts. Albertine’s renovation is looking very successful and between birthdays a magpie lands on one of Albertine’s oldest canes (30 years old a gift from friends and still going strong). It must have loved its new lease of light!
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60x40cm 2020
Our garden is a sanctuary for many different flora and fauna. They all co-exist. Mixing them in a collage is not difficult as in many places they all grow together. Descriptors include: a cacophony, a cottage garden, overgrown. The painting was made late winter with the brilliant deep blue of the Iris and the new succulent growth with the late glow of the day on the fern fronds.
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60x40cm 2020
Remembrance Day is many things to many people. For me, my families, my: father, great uncle, grandfathers, their wives, mothers and other family members, all in different ways. We have a rose, now more than 30 years old, forming strong canes with clusters of blood-red.
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40x60cm 2020
We are blessed with the native birds that frequent our property and flit in and out of both native and exotic plants. The parrots, especially the rosellas love eating from the red/white salvia in our yard outside my studio window. I painted this rosella with an orange touch as a nod to nature’s infinite variability.
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40x60cm 2020
Birthday lockdown was a walk along the Olinda Creek trail, through the wetlands westward to the horse yard. We stopped by the farm and watched the animals in the light drizzle.
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40x60cm 2020
The two works were painted in different colourways. The first on a cheery, sunny early spring morning. The second on clear, but cold Spring morning.
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40x60cm 2020
The two works were painted in different colourways. The first on a cheery, sunny early spring morning. The second on clear, but cold Spring morning.
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40x60cm 2020
The early Spring sun was glowing into the east facing garden. Its amazing when you are watching nature, she can show here glowing beauty, just to remind us of the possibilities if we look after the land. The ferns in the front yard are all self-sown and are now 30+years old. There is nothing average about the weather and our gardens have managed through drought, rain, storms, bushfire smoke and ash, high winds, the occasional freezing morning and the even less frequent drop of snow. We do maintain them, feed and when necessary water them. And we are rewarded.
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60x40cm 2020
The blooming of our wild sparaxis is one of our strongest signifiers of a change in our climate. We have been in the same home for around 50 years. We see the wild sparaxis growing sparsely. Mostly they have been very ordinary in colour but this year we’ve had number of the brighter harlequin colours.
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60x60cm 2020
This image is taken from a local region of natural bush that was totally destroyed by bushfire. Subsequently planted with inappropriate species it was destroyed again. Over the past 60 years it has been transformed into an arboretum. Nature’s powers of renewal with human assistance have created a space of both natural beauty and pleasure. Nature continues to reflect on history, but will history be remembered by humanities future decision makers.
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60x60cm 2020
I created this painting to represent the smoke haze from bushfire. Living in the Dandenong Ranges I have seen and experienced fire, bushfire and its aftermath. You just can’t see through thick smoke. In this painting I have alluded to something else within the haze.
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40x80cm 2020
This work recognises the workings of entropy of nature. It is a nod to the artist Tim Silver. Many of his sculptural works is related to the concept of entropy. That is all in nature is in a perpetual state of entropy: the theory that all forms and systems are in a constant state of decay or change. This idea permeates both his objects and installations, themselves captured in this process of decomposition through free falling photo-narratives.
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50x100cm 2020
If both parties to a dispute bring an olive branch, are willing to hear each other’s point of view, are capable of reaching a consensus, have the power and authority (of factions within their jurisdiction) to make binding decisions, and can carry the weight of their populous they are capable of making transformational and beneficial decision for all parties. This may relate to climate change, war (military, land or trade), use of natural recourses and so on. In this painting the parties of conflict and the parties of conciliation are each bringing an olive branch to the table with the objective of reaching an mutual consensus on reducing the effects of climate change.
