Silver Wattle Blossom is Part Ten of my Field Notes 30 × 30cm Collection.
I couldn’t have been more surprised when I realised that the Silver leaves I had drawn and painted were actually wattle. It turns out wattle comes in wide varieties, and all have completely different leaves. I had been familiar with wattle that had feathery green leaves and assumed that was what wattle leaves looked like. I was so incorrect. Wattle is known as Mimosa in Europe. The scent of wattle is delightful, they flower in winter and provides a dazzling display of lemon yellow.
Drawing the flowers was another exercise in a million stamens, this time in a ball-like structure which proved tricky.
I only painted the silver wattle blossom from life as I shifted my focus onto large-scale panels around this time.
Field Notes is divided into ten parts, each exploring a plant or tree I have encountered in my Brighton, 4017 neighbourhood. I observed the specimens on my daily dog walks, bringing a sample back to the studio to make drawings and paintings from it.
I worked on this collection from January to October 2026, so the paintings also record the changing seasons and the flora of my new neighbourhood as the year unfolded.
Each part consists of five paintings. Two were painted directly from life in natural light in my studio. These are titled Tabletop and Vessel. The other three paintings were developed from my drawings and worked as a triptych, exploring abstraction and the act of looking.
The final two parts of the collection developed a little differently, with two paintings in each. By this point I was ready to move on from the 30 × 30cm format and began working on my first 90 × 90cm paintings. Sometimes a collection tells you when it is time to change direction.
There are 44 paintings in the complete collection, each measuring 30 × 30cm and painted in acrylic on ply. The ply panels are cradled in meranti.
I chose the 30 × 30cm format because it is the size of my sketchbook, so it felt like a natural scale for this project. I also liked the connection to the idea of a foot - these paintings began with looking, walking and noticing what was around me on foot.
Silver Wattle Blossom is Part Ten of my Field Notes 30 × 30cm Collection.
I couldn’t have been more surprised when I realised that the Silver leaves I had drawn and painted were actually wattle. It turns out wattle comes in wide varieties, and all have completely different leaves. I had been familiar with wattle that had feathery green leaves and assumed that was what wattle leaves looked like. I was so incorrect. Wattle is known as Mimosa in Europe. The scent of wattle is delightful, they flower in winter and provides a dazzling display of lemon yellow.
Drawing the flowers was another exercise in a million stamens, this time in a ball-like structure which proved tricky.
I only painted the silver wattle blossom from life as I shifted my focus onto large-scale panels around this time.
Field Notes is divided into ten parts, each exploring a plant or tree I have encountered in my Brighton, 4017 neighbourhood. I observed the specimens on my daily dog walks, bringing a sample back to the studio to make drawings and paintings from it.
I worked on this collection from January to October 2026, so the paintings also record the changing seasons and the flora of my new neighbourhood as the year unfolded.
Each part consists of five paintings. Two were painted directly from life in natural light in my studio. These are titled Tabletop and Vessel. The other three paintings were developed from my drawings and worked as a triptych, exploring abstraction and the act of looking.
The final two parts of the collection developed a little differently, with two paintings in each. By this point I was ready to move on from the 30 × 30cm format and began working on my first 90 × 90cm paintings. Sometimes a collection tells you when it is time to change direction.
There are 44 paintings in the complete collection, each measuring 30 × 30cm and painted in acrylic on ply. The ply panels are cradled in meranti.
I chose the 30 × 30cm format because it is the size of my sketchbook, so it felt like a natural scale for this project. I also liked the connection to the idea of a foot - these paintings began with looking, walking and noticing what was around me on foot.
