What I've been working on lately

My biggest inspiration is the natural world and because I live in Western Australia, a significant part of my work is inspired by the hot dry landscapes that are typical of this region. Recently, I have moved away from painting what I can see in front of me and have begun distorting it and overlaying a new reality; a reality that replenishes the parched landscapes. I include water where there is no water.

This has happened very organically - I happened to pick up a pale blue pastel one day while painting a summer bush scene and it resulted in 'Like A River Finding its Way to the Desert' (pictured below).

Water finding its way into my work should not surprise me because I think about it a lot. Not so much the lack of water, but what we've done to it. I think about the myriad of chemicals and pharmaceuticals in our tap water. I think about the glyphosate and microplastics contaminating our rivers and oceans. I think about how this life-giving liquid has been adulterated. I think about the fact that the reverse osmosis filter in my house removes the chlorine, the fluoride and the pharmaceuticals from the tap water, but that it also removes everything else including the minerals we need for our cells to function. I think about how our blood is mostly made up of water. I think about how we are made of water.

All that is to say, it makes sense that water has found its way into my work. In my work, the water is alive and healthy, it's rushing across the earth healing the land; creating new symbiotic ecosystems.

Soon after painting non-existent water the first time, I painted 'A Rush of Water Through Dry Bush' (pictured below).

Making this collection feels a bit like an ode to water and a return to simple living. These works are slowly developing into a collection that I expect to release in the coming months - you can sign up to my newsletter below to be notified once they are live in my online shop.