MAPS

"Researching historical maps and recreating them in my own style has been a long-time interest. More recently, I have been incorporating maps into my painting practice, using historical maps of lutruwita/Tasmania and Naarm/Melbourne as the inspiration for new artworks in a range of formats. The process begins with research: finding maps of places of significance to me and the broader community in online archives. I specifically look for maps that reveal the beauty of traditional cartography in their depiction of the natural environment, which are often described as 'sketch maps' From here, I digitally edit or 'remix' these maps by removing human-made details like roads, buildings, property boundaries and land allotments. The edited maps highlight and reveal natural features like rivers, mountains, bushland and coastlines and form the basis for my paintings, which are developed as single panel and multi-panel monochromatic paintings of various shapes and sizes, depending on area of land represented. Some paintings are recognisable as known places, others appear as more abstract interpretations of the original cartographer's mark making.

The first map painting I completed was for my own home; a wall-sized map of the land around my property Hunting Ground in the Southern Midlands of lutruwita/Tasmania. This mural painting was completed in situ, using an 1840s map of a section of the Shire of Monmouth as source material. I was struck by the beauty of the cartographic representation of the hills and vegetation, and so this new painting practice was born. In this case, I worked directly from a large printed map which was gifted to me from a neighbour."

Wall painting based on the Shire on Monmouth Map, 184X, completed in 2019.

In 2021 I undertook a residency in the Southern Midlands AiR Program in Oatlands, lutruwita/Tasmania, where I completed a series of map paintings of the township and surrounds based on 1830s and 1840s maps sourced from the Tasmanian State Archives. The resulting paintings were exhibited in an historic shop front where the works were created.

Multi-panel painting based on an historic map of Oatlands and surrounds from the 1840s.

Multi-panel painting based on an historic map of Oatlands and surrounds from the 1840s. Southern Midlands Art Collection.

Single panel paintings based on an historic map of Oatlands and surrounds from the 1840s.

Promotional poster for the AiR Space residency in 2021.

NAARM/MELBOURNE MAPS

I am currently working on a series of five paintings based on historical maps of Naarm/Melbourne in which the Birrarung/Yarra River is the main subject. These circular works represent sections of the river, from its mouth in Port Phillip Bay to the North Eastern suburbs. These artworks are simpler in design and like with my previously created map paintings, all signs of human intervention have been removed from the source material, focusing entirely on natural features.

Sections of the Birrarung/Yarra River digitally edited as basis for paintings.