Oil on linen

Signed certificate of authenticity.

Early morning sunshine lights the pale eucalyptus tree trunks beside the Christopher Bailey billabong. This oxbow lake is one of several formed by the Yarra River (Birrarung) at East Ivanhoe in Melbourne's north east. I have used artistic licence to paint an idealised form of this scene. I have effectively cleaned the water of sticks, twigs, fallen branches and islands of grassy tussocks. No doubt this natural clutter has its place in the ecology of the billabong. It provides "habitat" for all manner of creatures great and small. As an artist, I prefer to keep things simple.