Acrylic on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the front.

When we think of paperbark trees we think of the fine textured bark sheets, often with insect scribbles all over them. Or we think of the creamy white bottlebrushes that are the female flowers. Male paperbark flowers are drab and tiny, only around a centimeter and a half across. This one had lost it's petals, and with them, it's puffball appearance. Unlike the female flowers, there would be no seeds.
But because it had existed, there was the hope of more paperbark trees.
I wanted to give this strange and unlikely flower the significance and a presence that it had never had to the human eye in life. Beauty is everywhere, even here.
This is a massive painting - well over a metre square. It has drama and a presence that will draw you in to a room, yet the colours are still restful and natural. This is a painting that connects to the heart of nature.