In 2021, I set up a studio in the seaside town of Corinella, to work on The Laws of Nature – my latest collection of paintings. I was working with personal reflections on solitude and yearning during the extended lockdowns in Melbourne when I discovered the Casuarina trees huddling along the clifftops along the coast.
The trees seemed to speak to me, sharing knowledge of devotion and unswerving loyalty to nature, the creator. They became the perfect muse, evoking feelings of vulnerability and betrayal, yet maintaining a sense of dignity and stoic strength.
I read Romantic poets, such as Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Lord Byron and Walter De La Mare; inspired by the emotional power of their words.
I wrote my own poetry such as:
The Laws of Nature.
Unable to run
When the weather turns
The trees are patient,
They won’t blame god,
human
Or the wind
Rather, they parade, attentive
To the sun, to heaven, to the creator.
Struck by lightning,
Smashed by cyclone,
Unfurled in a sun shower-
Never self-pitying
Only reaching upwards, with devotion
Even when Forsaken
They remain
Loyal to the Laws of Nature
But mostly I painted.
This is a painting about feeling forgotten and forsaken, yet standing strong and defiant, knowing that ultimately life is reward enough, and to be grateful for sound of the wind through the she oaks on a balmy twilight.
(title from Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s poem Solitude)