Birds of a Feather

Flashy and eye-catching, this bird of paradise blossom just wouldn't stay still while posing next to its warm neon friend! It bloomed over the course of the first day of underpainting, taking up more and more of the frame. The dark blue petals and pink flamingo light were the perfect companions to an antique silver coffee pot, which had tarnished so beautifully I couldn't bring myself to polish it. There's even a stealthy self-portrait in the reflection on the coffee pot.

The first of my neon still lifes, this painting was done in an indirect style, with layers of colourful transparent glaze worked over a gray underpainting, so it glows almost as if lit from within.

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Born in Australia to an expat family, I lived in four different countries before I started high school, an upbringing that taught me to appreciate the universality of art as a medium of communication and connection. A chance encounter with Copley's A Boy With A Flying Squirrel inspired a passion for realer-than-real art that inspires the mind with its skill as much as its meaning, and I followed that passion to a bachelor of fine arts at COFA. A night owl and feral animal fan, my work draws inspiration from the deep shadows and bright lights of the evening urban environment and the unkempt beauty of the natural world, with stylistic influences drawn from the allegorical details of the Dutch Golden Age to the hyper-saturated colours of Pop Art and everything in between.