Drawing has been part of my art making since the start. My first shows were of drawings and they continue to be integral to my work in dry media and paint. Caran d’Ache crayons and oil pastels are a bridge between my drawings and paintings.
This spotted gum is in our yard at Lake Tyers Beach, GunaiKurnai country, East Gippsland. It is part of a series paying tribute to the trees we need, and we need them to keep growing. This drawing travels around the circumference of its spotted trunk. I enjoy working with crayons, overlaying them, scraping back, burnishing them. Their waxiness mimics the feel of the bark as they work across the paper’s surface, discovering each dent, fold and bulge. Years teaching students with vision impairments means the connection between retinal diseases like macular degeneration and the Latin for spotted gum, Corymbia maculata, hold particular resonance.