I was honoured to be invited as one of the artists-in-residence for the Sydney Heritage Fleet to depict their vessels in artwork. The paintings produced during these months were exhibited to raise awareness of the important role this organisation plays in preserving our maritime history.

Visiting the Fleet’s Heritage Dock at Rozelle Bay in Sydney was a great source of artistic inspiration for me. I found a smorgasbord of inspiring images - historic vessels of all kinds in various states of repair, wharves strewn with spare parts and ship building tools, the backdrop of a harbour and seabirds all around. I came with the objective of documenting intriguing images with my camera with no preconceived ideas about what I was looking for. I just photographed anything that caught my attention or excited me, and eventually fragments of images came together in my mind to form an original story for a painting. I ended up incorporating elements from five different photographs to create this original composition for Boomerang.

Reference photo 1 - life ring from the vessel Boomerang.
Reference photo 2 - stand for life ring
Reference photo 3 - reflections in the water of the harbour
Reference photo 4 - planks on the wharf
Reference photo 5 - seagull