Acrylic on hand-built ply panel. 40x40x4cm. Can be hung as is or framed.
This painting is part of my Shelter series. I love begonias as they remind me of my Dad. At home, we always had a begonia as a house plant and when I left for uni I took one with me for my dorm room. I would draw it's spotty leaves during my first year many times. During my time living in Bermuda I would plant begonias in pots carefully keeping them in the shade as the subtropical sun would either make them stalky or fry them.
"Shelter" is a series of paintings exploring my garden. Our garden has been a labour of love for over a decade. We moved our house onto a rugged cow paddock in Cedar Creek northwest of Brisbane in 2010. I had wanted a large garden for years and finally had almost 10 acres to work with. At first, our house felt perched on the land, it felt separate, it was stuck in the middle of a hilly lot with a rough driveway as access. We started by mulching around the house and planting and planting. Over the years we slowly pushed back the garden boundaries, beating back the long grass and weeds. I mourned the plants which were lost to sun, rain, clay soil and bush turkeys, and celebrated those that flourished. Our shrubs and trees grew exponentially with the La Nina rains of the past two years and now cocoon our house in cool abundant green.
During the late summer of 2022, I drew my garden from life every day for 100 days. These drawings have provided an invaluable resource for my painting. I produced the series "Round and Round" and now a second series in " Shelter'.
The garden provides shelter for our home. Keeping it shaded and hidden from the road. It provides shelter for birds and wildlife.
While I was making the 100 drawings I more often than not had to shelter on the verandas to make drawings as it was a very wet summer. I had to find new compositions every day as I sheltered from yet another heavy downpour.