I went for a walk early one morning through a forest. A couple of months earlier there had been what are known as “controlled burns” through this area. Controlled burning is a way of removing the undergrowth that may become tinder during the fire danger season of high summer and hopefully reduce the risk of the … More Where the Wild Things Will Be
Looking down from Boronia Peak in the Grampians on the tops of the gum trees and the distant plain in full mid-day sun. Australia is the brightest place I’ve ever walked and the sun can be quite a challenge to hikers. Not something I ever needed to worry about in Scotland. However hats, sun-block and … More From Boronia Peak
I like a bit of wilderness, and if you turn your back on the skiers and head east from Mount Buller in Victoria you can find it in abundance. This was drawn as the first snow of winter fell, and lay, and melted. And fell. The cold was bone-numbing. Such is the changeable nature of … More Razor Viking Wilderness
“Even the rude Rocks, the mossy Caverns, the irregular unwrought Grottos and unbroken Falls of waters, with all the horrid Graces of the Wilderness itself, as representing Nature more, will be the more engaging, and appear with a Magnificence beyond the formal Mockery of Princely Gardens.” Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftsbury. 1709 Boronia Peak … More Horrid Graces
As evidenced by this painting, there isn’t an awful lot near Smeaton, a small town north of Ballarat. I make a lot of “busy” paintings, probably because visually there’s a lot going on in the forest. It’s complicated and messy. Trees stick out at odd angles. Stuff falls over. The whole place looks like an … More Near Smeaton
Finally, after trawling the archives, I get to put up a new painting. Just completed, it’s a painting of the Swiss-Italian gardens at Lavandula Lavender Farm near Daylesford. Go there and have the share plate. This is from a sketch of their fabulously ornamental vegetable plots: onions and nasturtiums and, hmmm, nigella maybe? Not entirely sure. For … More Inna Gadda da Vida
art about place 