Works on Paper 2012 - Solo exhibition at AM Gallery

This series of landscapes were the result of a residency at the Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiative in the Blue Mountains, Australia. They are all painted in watercolour and gouache on paper and painted plein-air or directly from nature.
The wilderness is at the heart of everything I create. The archival places untouched by humans where the ancient trees still grow, where the spaces are clear of tangled regrowth and instead enjoy soft mulch and tiny coloured fungi. Bucolic scenes are not for me but the way the light filters through the grey, pink and white trees, the shining native grasses, the many shades of bleached greens, greys and yellows and how a deep burnt orange will create a splash within still surrounds.

This body of work has been painted ‘plein air’ or directly from the landscape and mostly finished at the time of painting. This way of working has an immediacy which is one of my biggest pleasures. Spending all day immersed in wilderness searching and finding surprising  colours, forms, light and textures and trying to create both an emotional and visual response has been a most rewarding experience. Using mediums of gouache and watercolour and feeling it slide across the paper expressing the movement of the wind, texture of a banksia or the colour of a gnarly bark has given me the language to express my deep love for the Australian bush.