'Pause'
‘Pause’
37x 63cm
Acrylic, pastel & charcoal on canvas
To pause, stop, rest, is to gather all that has happened before to process, let it integrate and understand all that you wish to happen next.
When My girls and I returned home after we were evacuated from the bushfires the pause was huge.
As I let the horses back into their paddocks, the dogs back in the yard and let the cat out of his travel cage and we unpacked our emergency essentials and settled back into life afterwards we paused with reflection as to what the hell we (and everyone else affected!) had just experienced.
Unprecedented... was that word continually used.
We took stock of the experience and sat with all that it taught us and relished in the beauty that still surrounded.
This ‘bushfire lesson’ taught me the importance of the pause in any of life’s journey.
Breathe deep and breathe in the beauty that always remains.
ORIGINAL PAINTING SOLD
A2 Print - $65
A4 Print - $45
Gift Card + Envelope - $10
Note Card - $6
Journal - $40
*Note: please be aware that there will be some discrepancy in the colour of the artwork vs the image on screen due to the nature of the way colour is represented digitally.
This artwork is part of the ‘Fire & Feathers’ collection.
Which is a series of paintings that came from the ashes of the Black Summer Bushfires in 2019
I’ve never experienced anything like it before… the sheer fear of falling asleep at night with eery red skies, knowing the fires were inching closer, a full nights sleep was not possible, with the essential need to listen to the emergency scanners and check in with all our people. Carrying the responsibility of getting my daughters and all our animals to safety and the logistics of that with 3 horses and a 2 horse trailer. Digging deep and attempting to quell my terror and act fast when we were stopped on the highway, directed by a frantic police officer quickly motioning for a highway full of vehicles to somehow turn around and get the hell out - cos the fire was coming straight for us!
These paintings were my way of making sense of the experience and aiming to capture the resilient Aussie spirit that was shown in such real and raw ways.
The colour palette, the composition, layering style and the type of Aussie bird and botanicals that I used were all very carefully considered.
The juxtaposition of the devastation alongside the incredible kinship of people was something I wanted to capture through the birds and the native flowers and foliage. Encounters with strangers that ended in saying ‘Stay safe’ was a testament to our strong foundation as Australian people. The word ‘unprecedented’ was suddenly regular vocabulary to us all but we were all in it together.
At the time of creating these paintings I was very deep into my own devastation through my divorce and huge life upheaval and this is unconsciously expressed in each painting… that same ‘Rising from the ashes’ and sentiments of beginning again, sung true.
Resilience is a virtue that only comes after allowing something challenging to shape us in a stronger, wiser and more gracious way. These fires did this to us all.