Animals

Pastel on Pastelmat paper (Sold)

67 cm W x 61 cm H
The African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus), also known as the Painted Dog, is a very clever carnivore with amazingly complex social hierarchies and extraordinary communication habits. They exhibit elaborate greeting rituals, care for injured pack mates, and have their own sneeze-based form of democracy. They are named for their mottled fur which is like paint splashed on a canvas, and each animal displays its own entirely unique pattern. Sadly, they are the second most endangered carnivore in all of Africa, with fewer than 1,400 mature adults in the wild. Human encroachment and diseases from domestic dogs are their greatest threats.
This little pup in Kenya, was nervously waiting for its mother to return from the hunt.

Graphite on Arches paper ($POA)

42 cm W x 63 cm H
The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana)  is considered endangered,  threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and poaching for the illegal ivory trade. African elephants have grey folded skin up to 30 mm thick that is covered with sparse, bristled dark brown to black hair. The trunk is a prehensile elongation of its upper lip and nose, manipulated by about 40,000–60,000 muscles and so strong that elephants can use it for lifting about 3% of their own body weight. They use it for smelling, touching, feeding, drinking, dusting, producing sounds, loading, defending and attacking. This artwork focuses on the skin, trunk and tusk of a large bull and attempts to convey the immense size and strength of these magnificent creatures.

Pastel on Pastelmat Board ($POA)

(size to come)
Lions (Panthera leo) are unique among cats in that they live in a pride, often consisting of about 15 individuals. Lionesses are the chief hunters. They prey on animals of all sizes, including hippopotamuses, but prefer wildebeests, antelopes, and zebras. Lionesses are much faster than their male counterparts because of their sleeker and lighter bodies. A Lion runs at 35 mph however a Lioness can reach up to a speed of 45 mph.
This beautiful female in Tanzania was testing the breeze for possible prey in the vicinity.

Watercolour on Arches paper ($POA)

30 cm W x 33 cm H
Being the favourite prey of lions, zebras must always be alert, and often stand head to tail to keep an eye on the terrain all around them. Naturally when they stand this way, they can also give each other a good scratch on the rump, and with their tails constantly swishing, help chase flies away from each other’s faces.

Pastel on Mi Tientes Tex ($POA)

49 cm W x 42 cm H
During February 2019 tropical cyclone Oma caused gale force winds, abnormally high tides and large surf about the southeast Queensland coast, northern New South Wales coast and Lord Howe Island. During this period a platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) found its way into our small creek and pond, displaying little fear of us as it hunted for freshwater yabbies. Naturally it became known as Platypus Oma and had to be immortalised in art. The IUCN lists the platypus on its Red List as “Near Threatened” as assessed in 2016, when it was estimated that numbers had reduced by about 30 percent on average since European settlement. Since Platypus Oma we have spotted another two platypi in our creek at different times and are always thrilled to do so.

Pastel on Pastelmat paper ($POA)

45 cm W x 55 cm H
On a lovely morning at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo, NSW, we were fortunate to have a private tour of the Savannah where many African animals roam freely. A curious male giraffe poked his long neck (and head) into our jeep searching for treats. Both male and female giraffes have horns, but the tops of the horns on a male are almost always bald, whilst the female’s horns will be completely covered with hair. As females don’t fight, they never lose the hair on their horns.
The Giraffe is the tallest of all animals, with males sometimes growing up to 5.5 metres in height and weighing over 1000 kg! The northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), also known as the three-horned giraffe, is the species of giraffe native to North Africa. Once abundant throughout Africa since the 19th century, it is now isolated in South Sudan, Kenya, Chad and Niger. All giraffes are considered ‘Vulnerable to Extinction’ by the IUCN. There are currently only 5,195 northern giraffes in the wild.

Pastel on Canson paper (Sold)

63 cm W x 48 cm H
Very little is known about Eastern False Pipistrelles or Falsistrelles (Falsistrellus tasmaniensis). They feed on insects, including moths, beetles and ants. Like all microbats they are a wonderfully natural method of pest control as they devour lawn grub moths, weevils, caterpillars, beetles, midges, flying termites, mosquitoes and other insects. Microbats can eat as much as 40% of their own body weight in a single night or several hundred insects per hour. Sadly they are under threat from intensive forestry activity in their habitat, cleared for agriculture and housing, as they roost in hollows in old trees in higher rainfall forests. They do however occasionally roost in disused buildings.

Pastel on Canson paper (Sold)

64 cm W x 47 cm H
In 2014 I had the good fortune to join a 3-month camel expedition through the deserts of the Northern Territory and South Australia, with my Red Heeler cattle dog Ruby. The experience was phenomenal, trekking over 20kms daily with eight adult camels, 5 chickens and eventually 5 baby camels…Yes, they were born along the way, but that’s another story. My favourite camel, the one I bonded best with was Dixie, and this artwork is a tribute to her. Between 1870 and 1920, as many as 20,000 camels were imported into Australia from the Arabian Peninsula, India and Afghanistan, together with at least 2,000 handlers, or cameleers, from the same regions. The animals were mainly dromedaries: half-ton ungulates with a single hump, (Camelus dromedarius). They were ideally suited to the harsh, dry climate of the Australian interior: they could go weeks without water, and they had the stamina and strength to carry their loads and riders across what were often highly exposed, fiercely hot landscapes. Laden camels carrying wool and water, telegraph poles and railway sleepers, tea and tobacco became a fixture of outback life. By the 1930s, however, with the arrival of the internal combustion engine, and motorised transport, camels became almost redundant as pack-carriers. A four-legged mammal was no match for a goods vehicle, regardless of how stoic it remained in 40C heat. Thousands of camels were released into the wild, where, naturally, they thrived.