Creek walk

With my exhibition date looming (7 Sep) and my intention to title it "from the desert to the sea", I realised with a jolt that I only have 3 desertscapes completed. This led to a panic attack and the commencement of a fourth painting.


This one was inspired by a walk we did at the base of King's Canyon. It is a gentle walk, leading to a sheer rock escarpment. At that point, braver and fitter souls could venture up a million steps to the top of the table. This walk went through very lush landscape, surprisingly thick in parts, due to the phenomenal rainfall enjoyed last year. The creek was dry but the eucalypts were plentiful, their smooth white trunks contrasting with the red earth.

King's Canyon paintings

When we were at King's Canyon, the walking choices were either a 6km difficult walk around the canyon rim, or an easy walk on the canyon floor about 2 km and taking an hour. My husband did the hard one and for his efforts was rewarded by aerial views and my 7 year old daughter and I did the easy route. Truth be told, I preferred this walk not only for it's ease but the opportunity to see the stunning contrast between the river white gums on the dry creek bed and the red cliffs overhead.

Finally months after our trip I got going with this painting.

I am not sure it is finished but it is a base for further experimentation.

Location:Yulara Dr,Yulara,Australia

Desertscapes again

My artist friend Catherine generously gave me a few tips on painting deserts. This is what she said "...it is the density of the dark shadows that define the reds - think abstract shapes for the shadows. I think you've got alizarin crimson and pthalo blue in the shadows - more intensity." With her advice in mind, I decided to have another go at the King's Canyon painting. Here is what it looked like before I started experimenting.


It was fine but lacking in impact. Not memorable as the desert is in reality. I re-coloured the rocks to pure pigment and resisted adding white. That was quite a discipline for me! I added pthalo blue to the shadows which immediately darkened them.


And here is the result after. As Catherine said, it packs more of a punch. It captures more of the harshness and vitality of the desert.

Kings canyon

For weeks now I've been struggling with desertscapes... The colours in the desert are brilliant and most cameras cannot convey the shades of orange, ochre and yellow. But I wanted to put on paper what I saw, not what my camera captured.


Acrylic paints also have their limitations- the bright colours are usually transparent and opacity is obtained with the addition of white. However white dulls the colour and hence back to square one. In this desertscape of King's Canyon, I decided to work on paper so that I can put pastels and pure pigment on top. It's done with two pieces of paper so that it illustrates the vastness of this ancient land.

Colours of the desert

In an attempt to get the palette right for desertscapes, I painted some rocks and then used soft pastels to highlight them.


Incredible as it looks, these are the colours of central Australia. I've struggled to capture the desert and now feel that pastels are probably the best medium.

King's canyon resort

The sketch I made of the cliffs surrounding the resort has been turned into this painting.


If the colours look unreal then my excuse is that in real life they look even more vivid!

Location:Prospect Rd,Summer Hill,Australia

King's Canyon

Some 300km away from Uluru by road is King's Canyon. We hopped in the car and belted down the highway. An astounding sight greeted us on the way, a Mesa called Mount Conner rising majestically from the plains. Photos do not do such geographical features justice. The subtle shades of purple and red just get mashed into a bland nothingness. Mount Conner is 3 times the size of Uluru! It's a wonder it is not as famous.

Further along, evidence was everywhere of last weekend's bush fires. The road to King's was totally cut off. The fire was stopped by the road; great contrast between the side ravaged and blackened and the other. Willy-willys crossed the road carrying soot with it and dumping these miles away.

King's Canyon is full of birdlife. We even spotted a dingo and numerous geckos. This was the view from our front door.

Well, as best as I could make it anyway. I then sat at their sunset vantage point and ignoring fellow guests drew this panaroma of the canyon.


It's of course many times more gorgeous than this sketch. But what I learnt is that the act of sketching and observing means it makes the painting much easier and less reliant on photos; it jolts the memory and is a worthwhile exercise... even if the sketch ends up less than satisfactory.

Uluru and desertscapes

I've always wanted to visit Central Australia and see for myself what our desert looks like. In my mind, I have a picture of an arid place, red dust everywhere. But when I got here, I found a surprisingly lush landscape, mulga trees, bushes, spinifax and grasslands dotting the ochre red earth. The hotel staff said that it rained heavily last weekend and the evidence is there with odd puddles, water leaking from the rocks and water holes that are full. The hotel pool area has these amazing ghost gums with dead white straight trunks.


The gallery had an artists in residence program and this month is Brian Dobson, a watercolorist from Maclaren Vale in South Australia. Brian has some gorgeous waterscape but I have a feeling that watercolors don't suit desertscapes. Also he paints Uluru as a whole rock which is what those postcard photographs do. A big cliche in my book. Maybe the tourists like them because they can recognize it. I set myself up at sunset near the resort's lookout point to sketch the landscape. It was gorgeous with the red earth, purple shadows and greenery.


Unfortunately I think that either watercolor cannot depict the extremely vivid colours and spiky shapes accurately or more likely, my skills in this media are sadly lacking. This morning we went to do a tour of the rock itself and up close it's deserving of the reputation. There were caves used by the aboriginals with rock art and lots of dreamtime stories. Plus this massive red rock wall as a backdrop.