The Amalgamation

Humpback Whale, acrylic on canvas, January-April 2008, 8×8″ (approx 203×203 mm).

This is a rare case of me working on a piece for more than one session. Being notoriously impatient, I tend to prefer to get a drawing completed within a day of starting. This was a deliberate effort for me to try and develop more patience. This painting was developed over the space of a few months, one layer at a time. I’m not sure how successful it is - I am an amateur painter!

It was inspired by a photograph of a humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, and started around the time that the Australian news was dealing with the issue of whales being killed in our territory, against our laws. In Australia, whales are generally considered a vital part of the oceanic ecosystem, so it cause quite a stir when all these animals were being locally slaughtered earlier this year. Strangely enough, at the same time I have been reading the classic piece of literature, Moby Dick. I have found it a fascinating snapshot into human perspectives regarding whales - not to mention all the other deep themes explored in the text. The chapter devoted to arguing that whales are fish, not mammals, was particularly interesting. I wondered if perhaps describing whales as fish alleviates the burden of massacres when these intelligent, family-living, social creatures are cut to pieces.

More information -

- you might find the Animal Liberation Victoria website an interesting source of information regarding the 2008 slaughter of whales in Australian waters. Try http://alv.org.au/storyarchive/0607seashepherd/seashepherd.php or search for “whaling” at http://alv.org.au/.

- The Australian Government has online information regarding Australian legal policy directed towards cetacean conservation. Go to http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/species/cetaceans/index.html.

(Links accessed 27 April 2008 10.46 am Australian Eastern Standard Time)

Acrylic on canvas board, 9×12″ (22.9×30.5 cm), April 2008.

This was a simple painting - I drew and cut out the stencil, painted in the background, then stencilled in the horses. My children were enjoying watching the process, though they expressed confusion and concern that the pink horse was running in a different direction to the rest of the herd. Thus is their introduction to learning to accept that not everyone wants to conform to the status quo.

Watercolour pencil and coloured pencil on paper, 2008.

This sketch was an attempt to try things from a different perspective. I draw horses a lot, and horse-derived mythical beasts a lot, too. This one was drawn late one Saturday night when the kids were distracted with a video and my husband was listening to music on the computer. So, away I sketched. And, why not?!

This is one of the water soluble pencil paintings I did over the hot New Years season. I can’t explain it. I just draw unicorns, a lot. They are probably my default drawing! One of my dear friends has humorously suggested that perhaps there are tiny, invisible horses on my paper, and I’m just tracing them when I draw.

This was one of a few Christmas-inspired paintings I did late 2007. This illustration represents the journey to Bethlehem undertaken my Joseph and his wife Mary. It was drawn using water soluble pencils and crayons, then painting over them with water and a paintbrush.

This was drawn in water colour pencils, then painted. It was drawn on one of those awfully hot summer days that we had around New Year’s Day this year. I had been reading Arabian Horse magazines, and while I don’t think this horse necessarily looks Arabian, I was certainly inspired by the amazing purebreds in the magazines.