2024 – 2025
This series began from an unexpected vantage point: the view from behind the wheel of a bus. Post pandemic I needed to reset my daily routine and clear out the cobwebs!
As a bus driver, I retraced the streets of Sydney’s northern suburbs—where I grew up—with fresh eyes. Each morning, the windscreen framed the sunrise over rooftops and tree-lined avenues, revealing a quiet beauty I’d long overlooked.
At first I focused on the trees because they were magnificent. While there’s ongoing concern about the harm we cause nature, even in this altered landscape, it continues to thrive. It’s not nature that’s in peril, but the systems we abuse and rely on—putting us at risk.
One morning, a radio story named this area one of the world’s best places to live. It stirred something in me. After work, I’d drive to a spot that had caught my eye and paint for a few hours. These works grew from that routine.
Being Sydney, parking was tricky. I often couldn’t finish in one sitting and had to return—sometimes from a slightly different angle, adding improvisation to the process.
Each painting is a rediscovery of place—familiar landscapes seen anew from the driver’s seat. It raises the question: are we really in control or is nature quietly steering the course?
the end (for the moment)
Black Possum Gallery 