Oil Paint. Impasto. Hardboard. Signed on the front.
 
This artwork comes with an external frame. My brother lives on a large property in NSW. Capertee. He's a long way away, but on the rare times I get to spend some time in his country, I get lost in wonder in the landscape. He has a summer creek, but on the last visit it was especially dry, in a drought. My nephew took me on good walks, in his country. He pointed out so much about the life around the creek. Trees were felled by wombats, kangaroos munched on the dry grasses, birds and insects filled the air, there was a promise of gold if we decided to look. I looked, but resisted the urge to pan. The summer heat had dried most greenery, except around the small pockets still clinging to water, which glistened defiantly, as did all life on that creek. I had to paint it. I wanted to play into the tension between the beauty, and the threat. Using Oil on board, I scratched in the paint with a palette knife, doing my best to let the raw energy be represented, in impasto. The sun had bleached most of the warm colours away. Greens and reds were hardly to be seen. Since I last visited, there have been rains and fires. This creek still stands.