Cosy Corner, Albany (7)

I came across this scene of Cosy Corner near Albany in a book of photos of Western Australia and loved the delicate pastel colours and the simplicity of the composition. I also liked the fact that I didn’t need many different colours, as this was one of my earlier paintings and I didn’t have a large collection of pastels at that time!

I painted on the grainy side of the pastel paper as an experiment and used pink pastel paper. If you look closely you can see pink flecks showing through - I quite like the effect.

Chain of Lagoons, Tasmania (10)

While staying with friends in Bridgetown one Christmas I was flicking through their outgoing calendar of Tasmania when I spotted this picture. The scene really inspired me so I got my pastels out (luckily I’d taken them with me) and got cracking. It came together really quickly and I’d finished it before dinner!

The angular rocks, solid clouds and strong colours give this painting an abstract feel.

Sailing (35)

This is a picture I made up while I was messing around with a canvas and lime wash. The background looked so sea-like that I just had to add some boats. They were done in acrylic.

The boats look to me like they’re having fun, skidding freely across the waves. They’re probably technically inaccurate but, hey, this is not a realistic painting!