into my arms

2024

Graphite paint and gouache on vintage map of Phillip Island,

Victoria Moonah trees (Melaleuxa lanceolata), Phillip Island, Victoria

These majestic trees have been twisted and sculptured by time, with some trees being over 300 years old. Legend has it that among the Boonwurrung people lived a boy and a girl who had fallen in love. They spent every minute tightly embraced in each other’s arms, neglecting their tribal responsibilities and were banished from the tribe. The lovers left together so they could be alone in their tight embrace. Eventually, they froze in place leaving the twist of their entwined bodies to become the wrapping trunk and branches of the Moonah tree. The amazing Moonah can tolerate salt, fierce coastal winds and dry conditions, while providing shelter and roosting sites for an array of birds and other native wildlife. Moonahs are considered endangered on Phillip Island

2024

Natural inks, pigments, gauche, watercolour, graphite paint on acid free paper

Curtain Fig, Ficus Verens, Yungaburra, Atherton Tablelands, Queensland

There is a quote by Bengali poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore that goes, "Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven."

From the heavens, a bird flying above the canopy drops a seed, which lands in the branches of a host tree. The seed sprouts vertical roots that gradually become thicker and more interwoven. Hundreds of years pass, with the roots strangling the host tree, which eventually falls into a neighbouring tree. More vertical fig roots form a curtain, while the host tree rots away, leaving the curtain fig freestanding. This tree is thought to be nearly 50 meters tall, with a trunk circumference of 39 meters, and is estimated to be over 500 years old.

It is said that certain Indigenous communities would lay the body of the dead at the base of a strangler fig and tie its roots and tendrils around the body. In time, the body and bones would be absorbed into the tree, the roots growing and encasing the human remains—a living headstone.

The Curtain Fig stands in a remnant of the Mabi Forest (named from the Aboriginal word for the Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo). This forest type has several unique features, including semi-deciduous canopy trees that allow more light than usual to penetrate to the forest floor. It is endangered because most of this forest type has been cleared for farming. The area around the Curtain Fig is full of basalt rocks and was not considered suitable for agriculture. Although these remnants are now officially protected, they remain threatened by feral and domestic animals, invasive weeds, and the effects of isolation.

The Mabi Forest was home to the Ngadjon-ji and Yidinji Aboriginal tribes and holds spiritual significance for them.

To me, this tree represents strength, a song to a distant future, and a reminder of nature’s fragility and our role as custodians.

2023

Graphite paint and charcoal over map of Queensland. 

Mastwood, Calophyllum inophyllum, Cooya Beach, Queensland

Old we are—holders of time, wind, seas, and story.
Old we are, still standing after the last big blow. Our limbs grow long and thick, cracked and dark. We beckon and nod to Hinchinbrook, though we don’t recognise that name. To us, it is Banjin—storm coming.

We, and the mangroves, keep this land rooted in place. We stitch the sky to the sea, to the earth.

Long before white fellas came, many tribes gathered under our shade, the women gathering our seeds and fruits. We have many uses. The oil from our seeds was treasured to ease many ills when absorbed through the skin. Our branches yielded strong timber for canoes and shelters. Some call us mast wood.

We are strong.
We cling on.
We can weather all the storms.
We survive—no, we thrive.

2023

Charcoal, pastel, watercolour and graphite paint over map of Gladstone. 

Moreton Bay Ash, Corymbia tessellaris, 1770 Eurimbula National Park, Queensland

I am Goranja—Goranja for Kabi Kabi, and to them, I am part of their family, bound by kinship ties. My trunk is dark, cracked like the skin of a reptile.
I am as old as the dinosaurs.
I guard my roots and lower reaches, protecting my lignotuber, ensuring I survive fire and drought.
My torso is elegant, twisting, dancer-poised, opening skyward far beyond where I meet the ground.

I grow with my kin and the kin of other kin.
We know the old people, those who treated us with respect, who took only what they needed— for medicine, for canoe, for the warmth of shelter.
They took but did no harm. They too are kin of our kin.

One day, white men rowed to shore.
They looked—but not hard enough
to see the water we protect, the abundance we store.
They came, they collected, they left.
We were charted, diagnosed,
and a different story began.

Charcoal, handmade paints over a vintage cadastral map of Lamington.

Acrylic inks over ortho-photographic map of North Tamborine.

Acrylic inks over orthophotographic map of North Tamborine

Natural inks, gouache, graphite paint and watercolour over map of Lane Cove National Park

Acrylic inks over ortho-photographic map of North Tamborine

Natural inks and gouache over cadastral map of Mount Barney.

Acrylic pen pastel on paper

Mixed media drawing on paper

Banksia serrata plants generally become fire tolerant by five to seven years of age in that they are able to resprout afterwards.As with other species in the genus, B. serrata trees are naturally adapted to the presence of regular bushfires and exhibit a formof serotiny known as pyriscence. The seedbank in the plant's canopy is released after bushfire.

Mixed media drawing on paper

Angophora costata- commonly known as Sydney red gum, rusty gum or smooth-barked apple, is a species of tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. Reaching 30 m (100 ft) in height, the species has distinctive smooth bark that is pinkish or orange-brown when new and fades to grey with age.

Mixed media drawing on paper

Nothofagus cunninghamii, commonly known as myrtle beech or Tasmanian myrtle, is an ancient relict that was present in Gondwanan rainforests and today grows across the Southern Hemisphere.

Nothofagus - from the Greek nothos, meaning false and fagus, referring to the original belief that this genus was related to Northern Hemisphere Beech (Fagus) trees cunninghamii - after the 19th Century botanist Allan Cunningham

Mixed media drawing on canvas

Under a takayna moon

The artists gather

To bathe in the awe

Of stringybark giants

Drinking in

The mystery

Mixed media drawing on canvas

Under a takayna moon

we stretch our arms wide

fifteen souls reaching

to unfurl you

in an embrace

that does not stem

the flow of tears

Mixed media drawing on canvas

Under a takayna moon

giants loom above

memory of the felling time

whispering through the branches

The missing

a gap in the sky

Mixed media drawing on canvas

Under a takayna moon

The song of the night

rich

with cries of survival

blends

with scent laden mist

seeps into the blood

the cup filled

Mixed media painting on hand made Nepalese paper

In the Palm Grove section of Tamborine National Park. Pademelons scurry, Wompoo pigeons and Cat birds call, at the bottom of the track at the bottom the Picabeen palms dominate. Their aerial roots exposed above the soil surface to absorb oxygen when the soil is flooded or waterlogged.

Watercolour on cotton rag

I had noticed that at the end of the knoll there are two trees whose branches had fused together. I thought of them as needles, portals to the sky. Later I came to know they had much significance to the first nations peoples of this country- to the Wangerriburra people and those travelling through this land.

BEAUDESERT SIGNPOST, 2021

pen and ink on topographic map,

I have been driving the road to Beaudesert off an on since I was a youth project worker for Beaucare in the 1990s. As I came to know more about the Indigenous culture of this region I began to understand the significance of the area I drove through every day.

This Ring Tree would have been a sign post. It is said to be a border tree for five tribes.

mixed media drawing over topographic map

First Nation Australians used to weave together the branches of the young trees in order to mark places of significance. As the trees grew, the branches then fused together to form rings.

So-called “ring” trees are significant cultural markers for Aboriginal communities.

water colour on cotton rag

In December 2019 we found ourselves on a road trip from Queensland via Canberra and Melbourne and then onto Coorong, Adelaide, Sydney and back home.

Leaving Armidale to come home via the Rainforest Way my heart broke.

The ground an ashen white, the limbs bare and not a bird in sight.

watercolour, ink and graphite

Diamond Head as far as they eye can see was burnt. Charred trees, leaves turned brown, trunks laying on the ground, the ground ashen. However, signs of life stoirred, new growth peeped out from charcoaled limbs vibrant red, vivid green grass spikes poked through the ash and grass trees shooting new growth to the horizon.

Watercolour on cotton rag paper

One afternoon during November 2019 the fires were burning in Lamington and Main range National Parks. The air was crackling, the sky was glowing orange through the smoky haze.

It was at once unusual, beautiful and somewhat terrifying.

water colour and ink on cotton rag paper

In 2019, 9000ha - 84 percent - of the Crowdy Bay National park was impacted by fire.

mixed media on canvas with collaged map

see this art life for more info

Oil on Canvas.

acrylic on canvas

mixed media on canvas with maps

THE FLAME TREE, 2010

pastel, acrylic and graphite

Mixed media painting on hand made paper

Mixed media painting on hand made paper

charcoal and pastel collage

pastel on paper

charcoal and pastel on acid free paper

charcoal on paper

charcoal, pastel and watercolour

charcoal and pastel on acid free paper