“Natural History- a practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy.”
Biography
I am an Australian artist who lives and works in Canberra. Although primarily a painter, I work with a range of media including drawing, installation, printmaking and ceramics. My practice focuses on communicating the sense of wonder I feel when I encounter strange or novel things in the natural world. Small treasures, large landscapes, living creatures and remnants of past lives and stories folded into locations inspire my practice. My art works aim to convey the fascination that all these things hold for me.
My next exhibition Under-Stories will be opening at 6pm Thursday 17 July at Grainger Gallery, Fyshwick. The exhibition will run until 3 August.
Under-Stories builds on an earlier exhibition I had at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery in 2023 to include local stories of the box gum grassy woodlands in our region.
Paintings and drawings depict elusive woodland birds, some of the diverse understorey vegetation comprising this ecosystem and the weeds invading it to tell tales of a complex, fragile biodiversity.
The drawings have been used to develop patterned wallpaper and fabric which I will install to speak about the impacts of European settlement on these woodlands. Finally, a series of paintings of native plants with their Wiradjuri name re-ascribed point to the alternate ways of understanding and relating to this ecosystem that exist.
A digital catalogue will be available from 15 July on the Grainger Gallery website. https://graingergallery.com.au/exhibitions/
A selection of oil on panel small works, 20 x 20 cm, from my Voyagers’ Tales: Louis de Freycinet exhibition, 2024, Beaver Galleries
Multi-panel work from my 2024 Voyagers’ Tales- Louis de Freycinet exhibition at Beaver Galleries Canberra. These oil on linen paintings depict various sites of encounter between the de Freycinet expedition Voyagers, people and animal species.