Trees
Canopy (detail) 2026 paper pulp painting
I’ve been thrusting my hands into buckets of coloured pulp and mixing up watery solutions of green, grey and blue. It’s my papery painting dream, without the stress of fixing an image with paint. With paper pulp the fibres interact with each other, the colours blend and I can let the materials do what they like to do together.
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Work in Progress from the Tree Sentinels series
It’s a sobering experience knowing that a decision made during the depths of winter when light failed to reach the washing line, has meant that a tree has been condemned to die. While the arborist is at work, I paint bodies of trees inside sentinel figures, hoping to alleviate the onset of unexpected grief that has come with the death of a tree.
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Eye of the Beholder (detail)
Introducing light into my landscapes has helped sustain me when the world appears to be mired in darkness and destruction. Working with tree images is grounding; their roots deep in the ground, leaves dancing in the light. They inspire me to bring a lightness of being into my creative offerings..
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Once Were Trees 2025 - one of my new cyanotype prints about suburban development
Success is when your next project springboards off the work you’re currently making. After resolving the niggling doubts that your work would never quite ‘make the grade’, you can pause to look back on what you have achieved. Then it’s time to ‘move the goalposts’ and make new work that propels you forward again.
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Part of a gridded image of Moonah trees
Reconnaissance is a way to ‘hit the ground running’ when you are about to embark on an artist residency. I’ve been taking preliminary photos of the Moonah trees at Point Nepean National Park to see what the pictures suggest. This has led me to consider gridding up an image of the trees dancing together which I can then draw and print over as cyanotypes.
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Forest Dance (detail)
Long held beliefs about your own problem solving abilities can hold you back from experimenting and moving forward. I’ve discovered that instead of meeting the problem ‘head on’, it’s easier to go around the edges of things, whittling away until a solution presents itself. Like cutting with scissors to create silhouette shapes for collage.
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Inspired by the colours of the earth and tree bark ~ making paste papers
I’ve been calming my turbulent thoughts with colour experiments to create a series of paste papers. The colours reminded me of the earth, of the bark of trees and how trees form communities the same as humans do. All hues, shapes and colours depending on where we grow, how we put down our roots, how we are all connected by the blessing of this earth.
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Dreaming of trees - daily ink drawing from January 2024
Forests dwell deep in our imagination. They are the places of childhood tree-houses and stories of enchantment. Yet also a bit scary and wild. To foray into the forest you need to be prepared. Its immensity can be overwhelming, perhaps even life changing. I’m not sure what to expect when I venture into the deepest rainforest of Takayna in Tasmania with the Bob Brown Foundation.
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Forest Family 2021 - paper pulp painting created during my residency at BigCi, Bilpin .
When trees whisper their secrets, who listens? As an artist making work about the environment, I feel called to bear witness to the trees and forests threatened by logging, environmental destruction and pollution. Trees may help save our planet from destruction. Helping them survive is a reciprocal action.
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