'sunrise'

'sunrise' / 24" x 36" / semi-abstract / acrylic on stretched canvas / available
the sun is flickering through a thicket of trees in early morning in the new england district...looking straight towards the sun, one sees lemon and apricot hues diffused through stringy barks and white gums...the sunlight has not yet reached the brown undergrowth, but that wave of light will soon come...it is spring and the new growth of leaves shine emerald and lime green in the morning glow...

'tree butt'

'tree butt' / 24" x 30" / traditional / acrylic on canvas panel / sold - walcha, australia
i was on my way to work, on a misty morning, and i noticed the shape of this tree butt on the side of the road...i made a drawing of it and painted it later...the tree is a new england white gum from what i remember...these trees have smooth bark and are shallow rooted so often you can see the roots above ground...they shed their bark and leaves all year round...the yellowed grass showing it's winter...

'gorge country'

'gorge country' / 30" x 20" / semi-abstract / acrylic on canvas panel / available
this is a representation of the gorge just down from apsely falls, walcha, bordering our property...even on a cloudy day, the sun is striking through onto the water, and emphasising the wattles in the distance...i chose this colour scheme to accentuate the ruggedness ...the feel i was trying to achieve was earthy with rocky ramparts dominating...tried to emphasise the form of the gorge

'edge of the dam'

'edge of the dam' / 20" x 30" / acrylic on stretched canvas / available
i was starting the pump and had to put some water in to prime it, and as i looked into the dam i saw all these shapes - a microcosm of life...algae, larvae, insects, grass, kabungi reeds...it inspired me to create a painting of the intricate life that u see in a small & normally bypassed fragment of our ecosystem - the edge of the dam.. i recreated the image with colours that appealed to me and that equated with water, hence the turquoise...i added a few highlights of black (micro animals, little wrigglers) and red to brighten the other colours...

'windy august'

'windy august' / 24" x 36" / semi-abstract / acrylic on canvas panel / available

this is in the walcha district on the northern tablelands, new south wales, australia...we get a lot of blusterous winds that can reach 20-30 km's an hour...i wanted to capture the tumultuous activity of the wind in the leafy trees as it was blowing from west to east and twisting and turning the leaves of the white gum, manna gum, stringy bark and fuzzy box eucalypts...it is winter time and the wind also snakes through the tawny hay coloured tussocky poa, weeping rice grass and wallaby grass of this parched land...

'james range'

'james range' / 60" x 48" / semi-abstract / acrylic on stretched canvas / available

a red bush track leads you into the painting and then traverses some undulating hills climbing ever so slowly towards the foothills of the striking james range, central australia...clumps of spinifex fill the foreground, and trees stand in serried rank of ten or twenty near dry creek beds...i was impressed by the mountains and the sun light playing along the different rows of hills...weathering and erosion have produced the valley and the sandstone bluffs...i wanted to show how the ancient land even in the dry season is still full of colour; predominantly reds. blues and golds...the idea was to pull you down into the painting along the road and give you a sense of wanting to explore further up into the range...this is the ancient land of the upper southern arrernte/luritja traditional owners...

'along the uralla road'

'along the uralla road' / 30" x 24" / traditional / acrylic on canvas panel / sold - brussels, belgium
this scene is from thunderbolt's way, on the salisbury plain between uralla and walcha, new south wales, australia...this land is premier fine wool sheep country...the sun is setting and catching all the trees in late autumn with claret colouring the whole landscape...forest gums are in the foreground and native grasses - spear grass and some wallaby grass...the light is streaming across the country and has a fluidity that gleams, touching everything with a golden glow...autumn is dry in this area so everything is parched...and in may this will have a green tinge...the dead tree on the left is a peppermint gum that has been stripped of its leaves by scarab beetles...

'blue gums'

'blue gums' / 24" x 36" / semi-abstract / acrylic on canvas panel - available
this is from the bulga forest on the way to the bulga plateau in the falls country, as you go down to the coast from the tablelands in new south wales, australia...you drive for an hour through these trees...we were driving along an old logging road and there were a couple of mother trees that had been left,...underneath there were hundreds of sapplings streaming up into the sky 30 or 40 metres to reach the light...we call this area tall trees country...you can see some brush turkeys that make their nests out of vegetation which heats up and incubates their eggs....and there are paddy melons (similar to  a small wallaby), the beautiful regent bower birds that are yellow and black, a lot of big goannas up to 1 and 1/2 metres long, some old echidnas wandering through looking for ants...in the early days my father used to run cattle in the forest here...they used to have the man from snowy river races through the trees...

'spring'

'spring' / 14" x 18" / semi-abstract / acrylic on stretched canvas / sold - gloucester, australia

this painting is from the season's series...its a representation of the fecundity of spring...all the buds are shooting out, animals scampering around, birds quarreling over the females...it is bright and dripping with lushness...i was listening to the four seasons by vivaldi and was inspired to do some small paintings of the seasons...this was painted from feeling rather than any location...

'sand dunes, broken hill'

'sand dunes, broken hill' / 36" x 30" / semi abstract / stretched canvas on internal frame / sold - gloucester, australia
we went out to broken hill, new south wales, australia hunting wild pigs and i was taken by the sand dunes that ran south to north...the landscape has a delicate feel to it...the dunes have stabilised and there is vegetation all through...when it rains the wildflowers bloom...the sand dunes run away to the horizon like gentle undulating waves...covered by gorgeous azure blue skies...kind of desolate feel but has lots of wildlife that come out in the early morning and late evening due to the heat of the day...it's hot dry country...

'morning sun'

 

'morning sun' / 18"x 24" / semi abstract / stretched canvas on internal frame / available
from a series of four depicting different times of the day - morning sun, midday, sunset and midnight...the sun was just rising over the horizon and i felt the euphoria of being there to see it rising over the hill...the light rays were streaming down the hill like water...it was a joyful feeling getting up early in the morning...the dappled sunlight was splashed all over the eastward facing trees and shrubs like droplets of gold...

'rock pool'

'rock pool' /  48" x 36" / semi-abstract / acrylic on hardboard / sold - zurich, switzerland

this painting is from the bottom of the apsley gorge near walcha, new south wales, australia...the river has over time gouged out a large gorge and because it floods periodically all the stones are washed and polished into fantastic shapes...i was trying to get the ancient feel of the area with the shape and forms with a fractured background that is dark and gloomy...it feels quite barren...but the river is teeming with animal life with eels and fish swimming up and down river...it's like a moonscape -  polished and weathered...