After the Fire 4, precious river

Brightening dry earthy tones with a touch of vibrant colour, this is about new life and regeneration after bush fires in the scrub along this life-giving river.

This river bank is rejuvenating after the 2020 bush fires, and I adored the lush lime-green grass amassing along the moist edge of the riverbank in contrast to the dry grey-black forest of dead twigs and burnt trunks on higher ground. The piece is painted on lightly primed canvas, which made for a dry, scratchy effect with the acrylic paints that really helped tell the story of the burnt landscape. The lush, colourful areas are done with oil paint for their creamy richness to contrast.

The location is Gibraltar Falls in the ACT, off Paddy's River and Gibraltar Creek. I last painted before the fires in my first Forest Creeks series pieces (see Sold section of my page). There is also a series of smaller works which served as colour studies for this larger work, and were also tests of various surfaces.

This piece is on unstretched canvas and requires framing. There is adequate canvas space around the painted area to stretch onto a deep-edge frame if desired.

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From my studio in Canberra, Australia I work to create ethereal abstract nature paintings that echo that feeling of ease and wellness that twinkles through you when you stop in a pocket of forest or under a tree, stepping into Earth’s embrace. I would love to show you around my studio in person. Meantime, please enjoy exploring this virtual shop, zoom in, peer close, and reach out with any questions.

In the tangle of the forest understorey, the connectivity of all things is most apparent to me. The sense of oneness and gentle alive-ness leads me to create layers of subtle, organic marks that invite the viewer in, like we lean in to listen when someone speaks softly. Paint is added or removed, responding to the moment; some things from life, some imagined, as though co-creating, until this pocket of wilderness is formed enough to hold us. Final flecks of colour are allowed to skip across the surface like sunlight on leaf, web or tiny wing. I’m exploring the concept of Nature as divinity, accessed by grounding in the wild-grown Earth that is the ancestral home for our species. The result, I hope, is artwork with a sense of the ethereal; that is somehow both divine-uplift and soft-landing – like opening the door to home.

Visit my website for my full range including small works, and to join my Collectors List for early access to new work.

As featured on Space Invaders home renovations by channel 9 (season 6, episode 6), April 2026.