Grindell’s Dream, 91cm x 152cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026

John Grindell was an early white settler in the Flinders and Gammon Ranges district of South Australia. He ran cattle and built a hut that still stands today. In 1918 he was arrested by an Adelaide detective on suspicion that he had murdered and hid the body of George Snell, his son in law. He was later convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was later commuted and he spent the rest of his life in prison. This was the view from Grindell’s Hut which I stayed in in 2012.

Eungella spell. 91cm x 91cm, acrylic on canvas, 91cm x 91cm, 2026

In 2023 I stayed, along with eight other artist friends, in a cabin in Eungella, in the mountains west of McKay Queensland. Eungella is an aboriginal word from the Birri clan meaning Land of Clouds. I was painting the late afternoon light and thinking of the Modernist artist Marc Rothko when I made this studio painting.

Eungella Morning, 91cm x 91cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026

This is very much a studio painting. It is based on the morning misty light in the valley below Eungella but also my love for traditional Chinese landscape and the islands off shore from Mckay. I moved the Islands and the sea up into the valley and graded the perspective from Western to Eastern.