Lake Bunga and Bung Yarnda

Lake Bunga, East Gippsland continues to provide me with inspiration, after three years of return visits at different times. This is evident in the choice of colour palette and my attempts to capture the changing light and reflections on the surface of the lake.

A comparison between 'Estuary High Tide', 2022 and more recent pictures, for example, "Winter Afternoon', and 'Lakedge’. 2024, also bring attention to my interest in the twisted tea trees, as time and tides erode them, they have inevitably collapsed.

The tree forms fascinate me. In ‘Glimmer', the branches weave across my view or the lake giving glimpses of the far side. This title is also metaphorical as it refers to my wish of hope for the future of this unique place, which is of particular historical and cultural importance. Sadly, like the escarpment paintings, my depictions often bely the murderous violence of the past that occurred in this vicinity.

'Bung Yarnda' is the title of two paintings made from sketches 'en plein air'. It is the Gurnaikurnai nation's name for Lake Tyers originally established, in 1861, as a reserve to accommodate Aboriginal people who were forcibly removed from their homelands.

The title of my third solo exhibition Transition/Transformation reveals my interest in the changing face of the landscape, but not just a literal one. The idea of permanence and impermanence in the landscape is not just what we perceive on the surface, like the skin, but all the complexity of what lies beneath. Including the history.

Transformation suggests an outcome has occurred.Perhaps for the better or even to reveal something more surprising. I am interested in the idea of a liminal space too the uncertain transition between where you have been and where you are going physically, emotionally or metaphorically. This threshold of being on the precipice, the edge of something new but not quite there.