Pastel on Supertooth paper

60 x 85cm

Dedicating a large part of my life to fighting for increased mindfulness of nature has been an amazing journey. It has taken me to several stunning locations from the Himalayas in Nepal to China, Africa, Indonesia and of course many places in Australia. In such a huge continent as Australia there are an almost infinite number of places where wildlife can be observed in its natural surroundings. Only painting animals I have met in person, means I have to observe them closely as they go about their daily lives. Frequently this can be a cause of extreme hardship and risk for me…. but truly that just adds colour to the experience for me and drives my passion further.

At other times the wildlife comes to me and I don’t have to travel more than say 100 metres to the lake at the bottom of our yard. We have no fence to keep the wildlife out so they come of their own accord to eat and drink in peace…. safely away from the tourists in our tiny town here in the Grampians National Park.

During high summer when the weather warms up and the water level drops a little, the kangaroos and emus like to make their way down to the lake for a late drink before the sun dips behind the mountains. At these times I often set up my portable canvas bird hide on the lake edge and secrete myself inside for hours at a time just enjoying the presence of such magnificent wildlife sometimes almost within touching distance. Frequently they sense I am in there, as indeed I think this big male did, but so long as I remain respectfully quiet, they don’t appear to mind terribly much.

The inner (and outer) harmony that resonates through me at these times seems to quiet the wildlife as much as it does me and it is not uncommon for them to cross over the shallow lake to peer more closely through the window of my hide. These moments are special and personal. They are blessings upon which I thrive and I am able to take that energy back to my studio and create works that hopefully share a bit of that blessing with you. In this way I can make a small but hopefully significant difference in the way we perceive our wonderful wildlife. It is true what we ‘value’ we exploit but what we love we protect….and my love is something I hope we can grow into much more protection for the nature which gives us life on this tiny blue planet.