Lingering Gently

There are places that become stitched into memory so deeply that they no longer feel separate from the people beside you. This stretch of road approaching Lake Wivenhoe is one of those places for me.

During the 2011 Queensland floods, my dad and I stood together at the closest lookout point near the spillway as the flood gates opened against an overwhelming volume of water. We were travelling toward the flooding family farm, watching a landscape we thought we understood suddenly become unpredictable and fragile. The lookout itself no longer exists in the same way, permanently damaged and closed to the public after the floodwaters receded.

Rather than documenting the exact location, the painting lingers on the feeling left behind. The exposed earth and scattered gums appear suspended somewhere between erosion and recovery, carrying the weight of repeated change. Familiar roads that once felt permanent now seem increasingly delicate, shaped by weather, memory, and the passing of generations.

Layers of broken brushwork move across the surface like unsettled ground after heavy rain. Marks partially disappear beneath newer ones, allowing the landscape to hold traces of what came before while continuing to shift into something unfamiliar.

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Based in Brisbane, I am a self-taught oil painter whose work explores quiet emotional endurance, familiarity, and the softer realities of everyday life. I began drawing in primary school and started teaching myself painting in high school, developing my practice over the years through observation, experimentation, and consistency rather than formal training, but through my familys opinions they were the true teachers for my learning.

Alongside painting, I work full-time as an apprentice while living with chronic illness, an experience that has naturally shaped the emotional direction of my work. My paintings are often influenced by quiet moments, family life, rural surroundings, and the subtle ways people carry hardship alongside ordinary routines.

Spending time with my nanna, visiting the family farm, and life with my two greyhounds continue to influence the atmosphere within my work. Through oil painting, I aim to create pieces that feel intimate, restrained, and emotionally honest, focusing less on perfection and more on emotional presence.