Year - 2018 · Size - 34 x 47 cm / 13½ x 18½ in · Medium - Ink on paper

Back in 2018 I did a house sit on a large property along the road into Evans Head. The property sat on floodplain country, backing onto sugarcane fields, but contained large pockets of remnant bush thick with paperbark trees and cabbage tree palms. Vines wove themselves around the trunks which were home to epiphytes including orchids and bird's nest ferns. The bush was so dense it shaded everything beneath it into a kind of permanent twilight — impenetrable, mysterious, harbouring a darkness that felt ancient and alive. Drawn into that darkness I painted this during my stay.