Over the Back Fence

Inspiration for this Body of Work is taken from North Head and the local foreshores of Sydney Harbour. North Head is an area of remnant banksia scrub which sprawls over a series of sand dunes and contains hidden hanging swamps and melaleuca groves. Stone from the quarry on North Head was used to build the stone walls and the old road to the North Fort. The Quarry, long abandoned, provides a home for birdlife and frogs. Far below the sandstone cliffs is the foreshore of Sydney Harbour where the glowing angophoras and the cliff hugging vegetation invite interpretation.

I’m drawn to drawing and painting North Head because I walk there every day, at all times of the day and in all weathers and the familiar scenes and paths demand interpretation. By drawing and painting in the same location many times I have become intimately familiar with the landscape and hope to convey that sense of familiarity to the viewer.