Silver Wattle is Part Seven of my Field Notes 30 × 30cm Collection.
I had noticed the silver wattle in Peace Park, as it has beautiful blue-grey leaves which stood out against the dark foliage around them. One day I noticed they had these curly stalks with round buds. I have observed many plants in the park that look promising with masses of buds. Except that is all. The buds produce tiny petals and nothing else. I assumed this would be the case. I drew the buds and curly stalks endlessly as I tried to understand how they were attached to the stalks. The shrubs had buds for months until one day they were covered in masses of lemon yellow wattle. I painted them later.
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 is Part Seven of my Field Notes 30 × 30cm Collection.
I had noticed the silver wattle in Peace Park, as it has beautiful blue-grey leaves which stood out against the dark foliage around them. One day I noticed they had these curly stalks with round buds. I have observed many plants in the park that look promising with masses of buds. Except that is all. The buds produce tiny petals and nothing else. I assumed this would be the case. I drew the buds and curly stalks endlessly as I tried to understand how they were attached to the stalks. The shrubs had buds for months until one day they were covered in masses of lemon yellow wattle. I painted them later.
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.
