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Pastel on Pastelmat Board ($POA)

Image size 47cm h x 56 cm w
Framed  83 cm h  x 65 cm w
The Azure Kingfisher is found across northern and eastern Australia, almost always above water. It patrols up and down waterways and rivers from perch to perch flying very fast, and only a few meters off the water, typically making a loud high pitched “seeeeeeeep” call. They are very defensive of their breeding territory and form monogamous pairs. Their nests are hidden away at the end of a burrow, dug out of soil in riverbanks. Both parents incubate and feed the chicks. This pastel artwork captures an Azure Kingfisher in a fragile eco-system, a deep and dark mangrove forest. My artwork has contrasted a monochrome background with the bright blues of the bird, thereby focusing on it and the purity of its environment, hoping to elicit in the viewer an urgent need to protect our critical coastal habitats for future generations.

Pastel on Pastelmat Board ($POA)

Image size 42 cm H x 60 cm W.
Framed 61 cm H x 78 cm W

Flat Rock is exactly as it sounds, a large flat rocky outcrop between two beaches in the Ballina Shire. It is a haven for seabirds, both local and migratory, and they know they are safe there. This Pacific Reef Egret (also known as Eastern Reef Egret, and Pacific Reef Heron) was busy fishing in the early morning, wading through one of the many shallow pools.
Having lived in this area since 1982, I often walk these beaches enjoying the beautiful sights here. I just love the drama in this image and hope my artwork has conveyed this.

Pastel on Pastelmat Board ($POA)

Image size 46 cm H x 66 cm W

The tiny Scarlet Honeyeater’s range extends along the east coast of Australia. As with most Australian birds, the male is the showier of the two, with brilliant red coloration on the face and back. The female, in contrast, is pale brown-grey.
This is no doubt to protect her, and her offspring in the nest, by being less obvious for predators. My artwork is aimed to highlight her petite beauty, as she props within a flourish of red grevillea, in the Northern Rivers area of NSW, awaiting a male to enthusiastically call out to her.

Pastel on Pastelmat Board ($POA)

Image size 80 cm h x 60 cm w
Framed  100 cm h  x 78 cm w
I recently spent time in Western Australia where these stunning Forest Red Tails reside. Sadly they are critically endangered due to losses of native habitat, car strikes, nesting competition, animal attacks, and poaching.
They mate for life, sometimes over 50 years, but as they breed slowly, just one young every second year, increasing the species’ numbers has proven difficult.
Their distinctive screech gave them their Noongar name, the Karrak, and is also old bush-lore indicating rain is coming. To see them fly overhead is an absolute privilege, and I hope to have paid homage to their beauty in my artwork.

Pastels ($POA)

60 cm H x 48 cm W

Barn owls live alone or in pairs and are excellent hunters, catching their prey in complete darkness, using super-sensitive hearing, and silent flight.
Being nocturnal, they roost quietly by day in unseen places like tree hollows, thickly foliaged trees, caves and rock crevices, buildings and even wells. As Australia is one of the world’s worst offenders when it comes to land clearing, with a projected 3 million hectares of untouched forest to be lost by 2030, one of the biggest threats to Australian owls is loss of habitat. Our owls rely on hollow-bearing trees, often hundreds of years old, for breeding.
As owls are natural predators of rodents, Rat Poison is fast becoming the biggest killers of owls, due to secondary killings. Owls also fall victim to vehicle strikes as they disperse in search of food when local prey populations begin to thin out, or drought conditions affect inland Australia.

Pastel on Pastelmat (Sold)

89 cm W x 63 cm H

Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) are one of the most abundant and familiar of the Australian parrots, occurring over most of the country, including some offshore islands. Galahs have a bouncing acrobatic flight, but spend much of the day sheltering from heat in the foliage of trees and shrubs. Huge noisy flocks of birds congregate and roost together at night. They are affectionate and friendly birds, with pairs mating for life. Female Galahs have red or pink eyes (the males have brown or black), so these are girls obviously hanging together for a good giggle.

Pastel on Pastelmat (Sold)

51 cm W x 67 cm H
The Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) is arguably the best-known and most loved bird of Australia with its highly distinctive raucous “laugh”. The loud ‘koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-kaa-kaa-kaa’ is however not really the kookaburra laughing but actually a territorial call to warn other birds to stay away. Laughing Kookaburras feed mostly on insects, worms and crustaceans, although small snakes, mammals, frogs and birds may also be eaten. Prey is espied and then seized by pouncing from a suitable perch, as shown in my artwork. Small prey is eaten whole, but larger prey is killed by bashing it against the ground or tree branch.

Pastel on Mi Tientes Tex ($POA)

41 cm W x 51 cm H
The Black-necked Stork (formerly referred to as the Jabiru) (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticusis) is Australia’s only native stork, with numbers at approximately 10,000 birds. They are threatened by habitat destruction, the draining of shallow wetlands, disturbance at nests, overfishing, pollution, collision with electricity wires and hunting. Several breeding pairs have recently been spotted as far south as the northern river areas of NSW, the Bundjalung area where I live. My father-in-law loves these birds and asked me to paint him one. Their black-neck name is misleading, as although their bodies are black and white, their necks shine a radiant glossy dark green and purple in the sunlight. They have a massive black bill and striking long coral-red legs. The males have black eyes whilst the female’s eye is yellow. This fellow is obviously a male and was hunting in the shallow waters of Chickiba Lake in Ballina, NSW.