“Night of the Fire”

On 25th November 2015 John my partners 6th generation farm was one of the 700 farms burnt in one of the biggest and most ferocious fires that South Australia has seen. Tragically 2 people lost their lives

 We were at the farm at Mallala on the night of the fire, Nov 25. I could not sleep, so as an artist I began to draw my feelings & response, (eerie, surrounded by twisted ruins, trees burning, embers & smoke etc.). I was preparing for a solo SALA exhibition in August 2016. All my new work for this exhibition suddenly became my response to the challenges, emotions of the cleanup, rebuilding & moving on.

This artwork was featured in the memorial book of The Pinery Bushfire

The resulting 30 artworks are full of symbolic images in response to dreams since the fire. Colourful quirky birds, (they fly to safety & came back), butterflies of transformation, the landscape, faces of hope & passion, with 3 mysterious black birds featured in each art work. This new body of eye-catching works is fuelled by an inherent response to the challenges and moving on from the Pinery Fire of November 2015.