Gallery 1

ADELAIDE RIVER SERIES

My current project is to paint the Adelaide River - a magnificent and mostly pristine river which runs near my home in Humpty Doo - and its wetlands. It is proving to be a fantastic source of inspiration.  A helicopter trip for my Birthday has provided me with reference material for this series, in which I ask the questions: how should we value our scarce and life-sustaining water more  and will we squander it in the search and extraction of gems, metals and petrochemicals? 

Sapphire Creek

A retreating tributary of the Adelaide River is fringed by a few paperbarks. Its deeper water reflects for an instant, a remarkable sapphire blue, as we fly over.

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

35x50cm

Silver Swamp

Flying South from Arnhem Highway bridge, low over the Adelaide River in July, we see a confluence of tributaries which catches the sun and reflects the morning light, like moulten metal. Paperbarks, Lilypillies, and Freshwater mangroves in this wetland are still partly submerged. Native Cane grass and sedges are breeding grounds for frogs, pythons, native rodents and marsupials and insects. Fish and other aquatic life, including Barramundi, feed in the shallow water.

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

76x76 cm

Diamantine Swamp

Feral Water Buffaloes are still present in large numbers in the Top End. Their muddy wallows glint in the morning sunshine along the fragile margins of this billabong near the Adelaide River

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

5x76cm

Dark pond with waterlilies

A typical waterhole on the middle reaches of the Adelaide River system. It is surrounded by typical Savannah eucalypt woodland of Stringybarks, Darwin Woolybutts and White gums. The waterhole itself is fringed by paperbarks and freshwater mangroves. Circles of waterlilies float on the oily dark water, a refuge for fish and drinking water for Agile wallabies, whose tracks surround it.

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

30 x 50cm

Wetland with Weeds

The run off of mud has turned this tributary of the Adelaide River a pale gold. Floating mats of the giant introduced pasture grass known as Olive hymenachne have invaded the shallow water and behind it, is a stand of the prickly South American giant sensitive plant: Mimosa pigra too dense even for the comfort of feral pigs

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

35x50cm

We have a Choice

It is only July after a ‘good wet’ season with plenty of rain, but people are already burning off. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that 50% of North Australian Savannah woodland is deliberately burned every year – in some areas this is an understatement. This burning serves no useful purpose and long term residents observe the decline in monsoon forests and woodlands.

mixed media on canvas

40x40cm

Jade Ponds

A seasonal ox-bow lake on the middle reaches of the Adelaide River system is gradually drying out into a series of jade-green ponds. The water is sought by animals, whose tracks criss-cross the sandy floodplain. Where will these animals go when this water has dried up?

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

50cx50cm

Opal pond with animal tracks

Somewhere on the edge of the Adelaide River system in the Northern Territory. This last pond of drying water is circled by animal tracks. Those animals must soon look elsewhere. It may be 5 months before there is any significant rain. (Private collection USA)

Mixed media and iridescent paint on canvas

50cx50cm

Cabochon Bore

On the middle reaches of the Adelaide River, an area has been fenced and cleared for cattle. Their tread breaks up the soil which turns to red dust. Their tracks converge on a circular water trough, fed by a bore. It is July and the trough is empty, the metal gleams like the setting for a lost jewel. Rain may not come for 5 months.

Mixed media and metal findings on canvas

50x50cm