The year draws to it's close.

Surrounded by Eucalypts, with their ever dropping leaves, with a river now running at the back boundary, and a workspace set up at my kitchen table, this has been a year of hunkering down and quietness. For all of us it has taken a toll, and the sense of what we can and cannot control in our lives is ever strong. We have spent our year quietly, socialising only outside and in small numbers, and usually around a camp fire. We have not ventured far beyond our village, and have focussed inward. I’ve watched a LOT of netflix, and all the other streaming services, gardened more and painted less than normal.

What I have painted has been moody, and very much focussed on the Australian landscape. A series of works on paper, of eucalypts and dust, of sandstone, of fires, and of breaking rains.

It’s been a tribute to the Australian landscape, triggered by a summer of fires, and a year surrounded by nature. I’ve been conscious of the future that is coming - of the climate changing, and what that will mean going forward. What it means on a dry continent, and how many more viruses will head our way in pandemic form, as the climate changes and the population grows and then crashes.

I’m prone to catastrophic thinking, always mentally considering a mad max future.

This year has made me think even more about this future, and what it will look like. It has been the loudest clarion call, and too many aren’t listening.

Sandstone Rivers in scene