Artwork title : Portrait of a WILDFIRE

During 2020 a fascination with the majesty of the life cycle of the Australian bush, led me to think about how wildfires might see and portray themselves.

I imagine wildfires would say of themselves that they are treacherous, capricious, angry and unashamedly resplendent. They are unpredictable, agile and self-indulgent.

So, for this work, using acrylic and mixed media, I created 361 spontaneous and unique “fire flashes” on acetate, and assembled them into a single image representing wildfires’ self-acclamation – a portrait of glimpses including the yet to be enveloped green vegetation viewing its black inevitable future, adjacent.  

The painting invites the viewer to move towards and away to realize the full extent of color and intensity, and to touch the work to further sense the diversity of nature’s textures.

Not trivializing their destructive power but acknowledging these events as increasingly inevitable and having a fundamental role in environmental regeneration and rebirth.

The work was created with acrylic and mixed media on a 76cm x 76cm framed canvas.