Surfboards and beach shacks are quintessential Australian. This painting is a colourful narrative that invites us to get those swimmers on, grab a towel and head down to the beach, surfboard under arm.
The Far Eastern curlew is a beautiful winged visitor from Russia, that spends winter in Australia – it is on its way to forage tasty crabs and molluscs using its long bill picking and probing in the mud and sand. Female Satin bowerbirds perch contently on one of the surfboards, perhaps whiling away the time whilst the males are getting their bowers ready for inspection. Then we have the locals: a seagull, cockatoos, a lone magpie and a couple of kookaburras –and a very shy echidna.
This painting was a finalist in the 2020 BAM Art Prize as well as the 2020 Northern Beaches Art Prize.