As an Australian artist, home for me has always been a place equal both in beauty and hostility, such as high up in the snowcapped mountains, or on the edge of a coastal cliff. I have felt firsthand the tenuous relationship between these partnered states and how either can quickly transform itself into the other, with ferocious drama or merciful calm.
When I paint, I completely give myself over to expressing the natural harmony that exists within this dichotomy. The strength and resilience of us as a people, ensures my work is never a solitary experience, quiet the opposite, with every applied movement of light, darkness, land, sea or sky across the canvas being loaded with the spirit of people who inspire me, past and present.
I keep my palette subdued and focus strongly on shaping a scene with light or lack thereof, to look through the expressed mood to the horizon. Often a glimpse of light is reflected from the somewhere up high, an inner light of hope that can get clouded, muddied or even completely covered up. But, there too it can sit, mirroring its source calmly and clearly as a reminder of us.