Landscapes and cityscapes
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Burleigh Beach Shack. 11 x 15 inches. Acrylic mixed media on paper. To purchase, visit my shop.
Where I live in Burleigh Waters, near Jellurgal, has an eclectic mix of architecture that fascinates me. Modern coastal builds, single story homes of the 1970s-90s - many now renovated, luxury houses on the canals, and the beach shacks.
Ah, these beach shacks!
They captivate me, not only for the way they contrast the muscular, ‘coastal lux’ builds of today. They’re simple, functional and modest. With their weathered aesthetic, they’re frequently made of fibro/asbestos materials and timber, painted in bright, coastal colors.
My heart jumps into a smile and my soul meanders with curiosity every time I see a beach shack. I had to paint the joy of living amongst these nostalgic delights!
This house is 40 Symonds Road, Burleigh Heads.
Palm view (working title). 12 x 12 x 1.57 inches (30.5 x 30.5 x 4 cm). Acrylic on cradled wood panel. To purchase visit my shop.
How do you connect with a place? I like to learn the stories of a place, including its history, it's ecosystem, it's people, and create images that reference those stories. Trees especially captivate me, like wise family members watching over me, listening to us and keeping us grounded. I wanted to paint the joy that this particular palm tree gifts me, greeting me each morning as the sun rises over our roof tops. This tree is my Burleigh companion.
Bird’s-Eye View. 36 x 24 inch hexaptych (6 panel painting). Framed dimensions 39 x 26 x 1.5 inches. Acrylic and collage on wood panel. $1500. See more and purchase here. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023, and the SWELL Smalls Art Prize, Australia 1-17 March 2024.
The view from my window is divided my window’s metal frame, through which I enjoy the tree outside, up close, from a bird’s-eye view. Trees are incredibly generous beings, offering cool shade, food, shelter and a gathering place. Numerous birds play and live in this particular tree, singing and chirping to each other all day.
Sharing space with this tree, birds and squirrels fills me with joy. Despite being surrounded by driveways and multi-family dwellings, somehow this tiny space feels vast when I’m present with the life here. This painting honors that wondrous, spacious feeling of being part of this ecosystem.
I followed an intuitive process over multiple layers that led to the painting you see here. If you look carefully, you’ll see the history of layers beneath, symbolizing the importance of connecting with the lifeforce around us, right before our eyes.
See a four-part time lapse video series of this painting being created here: https://www.youtube.com/@DrKMcB.
Smoke Again. 12 x 12 inch (Framed dimensions 13x13x1.5 inches). Acrylic and collage on wood panel. SOLD. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023.
In recent Bay Area Summers, many here hope to be spared another extreme wildfire season. This painting reflects one Summer morning when I set out with friends for our early bike ride, where we witnessed the sun rising behind a smoke-filled sky due to fires in California and Oregan. The smokey air brought with it our fear of another fire season.
In these challenging times of climate change, I feel inspired by the way the land and nature continue to evolve and resolve. This inspiration energized the painting.
See the accompanying poem, “Breathing ashes of ancients” here.
Bay Area Grasslands. 6 x 6 x 1.25 inches. Acrylic on gallery canvas. $200. See more details and purchase here. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023.
This painting is a meditation on the native grass surrounding the trails in Portola Valley and surrounding areas. In Summer, the grass and land are very dry here; a drought will do that. But also the native grasses know how to survive drought.
This painting is a celebration of this land, which upholds and nurtures our lives. This land that shares its wisdom through its resilience, showing us ways to connect with community and our souls. This land which has accepted me for who I am. Read the accompanying poem, “A hello and good-bye” in the next image.
You gave me the world. Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel, 12x12 inches. SOLD. Published in La Raiz Magazine 2022 issue.
This painting is inspired by the little birds that live, play and sing in my small courtyard. I enjoy watching the birds sit on the fence watching me, so in this painting I created a whole new world for them to enjoy. Instead of the units/houses and concrete squeezed closely together, this bird gets to admire a fantastical sky from which the sun’s brilliance lights all that regards it.
In giving these birds a new world, I realise how they have already given me the world, right here where I am.
Just a Whisper. 12x12 inches (framed dimensions 13x13x1.5 inches). Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel. SOLD. Exhibited at the Drawing Room SF, 18 February - 31 March 2023.
I recently had the chance to hike in the Morro Rock area. The conspicuous Morro Bay Power Plant stood by, commanding attention, but it was the sky and her swallowing of the power plant stacks that intrigued me. I had a lot of fun making the sky ‘the thing’ with all the texture in this painting, making the power plant retreating into the sky 'just a whisper'. This painting is a sensory celebration of that brilliant California sky.
Bay Area portal. 2022. Acrylic on paper. 11 x 14 inches. SOLD.
If you’ve ever been along the San Francisco Bay shoreline on the peninsula, then you may have experienced those days when the haze and sunlight bind the water and sky into one indistinguishable blanket that wraps itself around you.
The experience is quite surreal, like a portal into a parallel world.
In this piece, I play with paint and texture to capture that experience and remember it.
Look up. 12 x 24 x 2 inches. Mixed media acrylic on cradled wood panel. SOLD.
After 10 years away from South East Queensland, it has taken time to reconnect. As is my way, I find inspiration in nature. During my walks across the Shailer Park hilltops, native ravens and crows consult loudly while perched on the powerlines. I love the way these birds have taken over these bland forms of human infrastructure. I felt compelled to paint the scene - to remember to look up.
Treehouse. 11x14 inches (framed dimensions 16 x 18.5 inches). Acrylic and collage on paper. SOLD. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023. Published in La Raiz Magazine 2024 issue.
I created this painting in response to a poem I wrote as part of the CRE-STRIDE* Deadly Poets Society. This image wouldn’t leave me as I created the poem, inviting me to paint it. The poem explores what it is to be home when factors beyond our control dictate which places are reachable. In both the poem and the painting, I seek to capture the feeling of home as a place that is made of relationships and connections. See the poem, “She’s home”, in my poetry collection.
*Centre for Research Excellence: STRengthening systems for InDigenous health care Equity (CRE-STRIDE)
Waiting at the Doors. 11 x 15 Inch (Matted in 16x20 frame; framed dimensions 19.5 x 23.5 inches). Acrylic and collage on paper. SOLD. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023.
I created these doors by following a meditative process of listening and responding to images that I liked, while grounding myself observing the sights and sounds surrounding me where I live in Redwood City. I concluded the creative process by writing an accompanying poem, also called “Waiting at the doors”, which you can view in my poetry.
Life on the Vine. 12 x 12 inch (Framed dimensions 13x13x1.5 inches). Acrylic on wood panel. SOLD. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023.
This painting was created through experimentation and play. I first approached the panel by allowing myself to create any marks or colors I desired. As I continued, I noticed a desire for more white space - perhaps in my life, not only on the panel. Inspired by the vines I have seen at wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I curated the light-value space to reveal an old grape vine that provides a home to this area’s curious birds.
Eco-anxiety in Edgewood Park. 16 x 20 inch (Framed dimensions 25.5 x 21.5 inches). Acrylic on canvas. SOLD. Exhibited at San Mateo County Cafe Art Gallery, U.S.A., 3 March - 20 April 2023.
This painting is an interpretation of a spot that I hike by in Edgewood Park, San Mateo County. I am grateful for the beauty around us, right on our doorstep. Nature and a right relationship with her inspires me. I see our human behavior and institutions hurt earth, and yet she nourishes and invigorates us.
This painting reflects my love for and inspiration from the land here, along with anxiety from climate-change induced fire seasons - can you sense the hint of a fire memory in the colors? In fact, just last year in 2022, Edgewood Park was on fire.