Awaiting Rain Over Alpurrurulum

I’ve been driving or flying out to Alpurrurulum since 2008, and in that time I’ve seen the place at its absolute driest and also underwater during the floods. Over the years my mate has put his drone up plenty of times, and that’s really how my Rain over Alpurrurulum series came to life. This one’s number 1.

It took me a while to paint what has become the first piece in this series. I know crises have cycles and seasons, but I thought this was the end. The photo that inspired this work was taken from above me during my first experience of an outback drought. It was brutal. Life had literally drained from the land. I had never seen so much raw, exposed earth and even the sky looked dry. The heat was unrelenting.

A few years later, the rain returned with a vengeance. The Georgina River flooded and cut off Alpurrurulum, and with that came a shift. I could finally look back at that drone shot and see that it hadn’t been the end after all. So I painted, capturing the shocking beauty, the blinding light, the intense colour of the earth where seeds and creatures had retreated to survive. Nature in all its brutal glory.

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I have worked as a builder, raised children, and kept working steadily since 1989. It wasn’t until a worksite accident in 2018 forced me to pause for two years that I discovered how deeply painting could support the mind, body, and spirit. What began as a way to fill time became a way to restore myself.

Since then, I’ve learned oil and watercolour painting through online study and workshops, finding joy not only in the creative process but also in the community that forms around it. I’m still exploring both mediums and experimenting with different styles, but the one constant is my connection to Australia’s landscapes. They are the places that speak to me most strongly.

My subjects are drawn from the familiar terrain of my life: the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, the Gold Coast of Queensland, the quiet roads of country Victoria, and the vast openness of the Barkly Region in the Northern Territory. I paint in a representational landscape style, guided by a quiet joy in capturing the beauty of scenes that held my attention long after I passed by them.

Often, I’m on the move, rushing to the next job or taking a relaxed drive, when a view draws me in. I find myself stopping, taking a photograph, and returning to it later when I have time to truly reflect. My paintings are my way of revisiting those moments, honouring their beauty, and sharing them with others. Each piece is a pause, an appreciation, and an offering.