The Twisted Guardian of Rottnest

This painting is my tribute to the wonderfully stubborn Southern Cypress Pine — the wind-tossed character better known as the Rottnest Island Pine. It was inspired by my recent travels in Western Australia and visit to Rottnest Island.

To me, this tree feels like a fairy-tale guardian. Shaped by relentless coastal winds, it refuses to grow politely upright. Instead, it twists, leans, and throws its branches about like wild hair in a storm. I like to think of it as a grumpy old sentinel — bent but unbroken — standing watch with dramatic flair.

There’s humour in its shape, I think — a kind of botanical mischief. It may look chaotic, but there is strength in that dance with the wind. A little stubborn, a little theatrical… and entirely magnificent.

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​​I am a Ukrainian-born, Sydney based painter.I express my thoughts and feelings through allegories. Roads, bikes, sails, birds and other objects in my paintings have symbolic meaning. A road can represent life journey. Wind is associated with anxiety and awaiting changes. A broken umbrella is telling a story of broken heart. Sailing is following or fighting for your dream. I like discovering new objects with “meaning” to use in my works, like a poet uses allegories. ​​Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, I became infected with the drawing virus at a very early age when I discovered on my parents' bookshelf a book of caricatures by Herluf Bidstrup, famous Danish artist/caricaturist. So my early experimentation with art was in drawing caricatures of my classmates, teachers and other locals. I studied painting at the Kyiv Art School and in 1987 graduated from the Kyiv State Institute of Arts with a degree in architecture. After graduation I worked as an architect and later changed my career into graphic design. In 2000 I moved with my family to New Zealand. Inspired by Wellington's rolling hills, steep streets with small houses, sky and sea, I return to my passion, painting, began experimenting with different mediums and techniques (gouache, oil, collage in combination with watercolour and acrylic) to move away from the representational approach. I have participated in various group and solo exhibitions run in Wellington - WAG (Wellington Artist Group), Watercolour NZ, Academy of Fine Arts, South Coast Gallery and NZ Art Show. My work is especially influenced by Post-Impressionist painters such as Cézanne and van Gogh. Landscape, a mixture of reality and fantasy, has always been my favourite subject, but recently I began plying with abstract figurative. Most of my works are based on first impression sketches and caricatures. I let them travel straight from my sketchbook onto a canvas with very little changes and corrections. In regards to colour - I should confess to a great love of green in all its shades. However there was a certain shift in my colour palette after moving to Australia in 2010.