73 cm (w) x 51 cm (h), pastels and charcoal on paper.
Date produced: 2006

This was produced entirely on-site. I am keen to use more abstraction in my pieces - that is, intelligently and/or emotionally using bold relationships of abstract elements to express some aspects of the subject more efficiently.

This piece is an example of an image based on ‘simplified and flattened’ shapes. The colours used have come mainly from the understanding gained from my accurately observed colour studies, and from working on this piece directly from the tree. I enjoyed consciously ‘reaching within my intelligence and feelings’ for the solutions I finally settled on.

After reaching a reasonable stage of development, the piece felt as if it needed the inclusion of indications from other senses, such as sound, and smell. After experimenting with modifying colours, and still feeling the need for more, I decided to include a couple of stylised birds. These were developed a little more, and led to including representatives from much of the animal life that I observed at the tree over the course of the project: Rainbow Lorikeets, warbling Magpies, rats, many types of insects within the leaf litter, and the amazing little jumping spiders. These were all developed carefully so that they felt ‘right’ with the rest of the image.

Overall, it was a fun piece to produce, and I am very pleased to have produced it.