Busselton jetty (73)

This scene of the Busselton jetty was taken from a photo in a travel brochure. The jetty stretches 1.8 kilometres across Geographe Bay, making it the longest timber-piled jetty in the southern hemisphere.

Building of the jetty started in 1865 and it took 95 years to complete. Originally the jetty was used for shipping timber and local produce (mainly potatoes) and horse drawn trucks were used for loading until 1911 when the railway on the jetty became operational.

In 1972 operations stopped and the jetty quickly deteriorated due to wood borers and rot. In 1978, Cyclone Alby swept down the coast, destroying a significant amount of the jetty, and in 1999 a major fire destroyed more than 70 metres of the jetty.

In 2009 restoration of the jetty began and it reopened in February 2011. Today, the jetty attracts over 400,000 visitors a year and is the most popular tourist attraction in the south west region of Western Australia.

I loved the dramatic sky in the photo and decided to paint it in oils as a challenge. The result is a little abstract as I found the jetty difficult to paint realistically.

Into the wild (31)

Still on the hiking theme, this painting is from a photo I took while hiking the Kepler Track at the bottom of the south island of New Zealand. It was taken on the first day of the hike, heading up through the tree line to the ridge. I actually took the photo by mistake (so have no idea who the walker in the picture is) but it turned out to be one of my best photos!

There had been storms and torrential rain the previous night so the light was soft and had a pink hue to it, the ground was wet, and the plants were lush and glistening. When I look at this painting, I feel the calmness I experience on long distance hikes. The steady plod of putting one foot in front of the other for hours and days on end puts me in an almost meditative state.

This painting will be exhibited at Fidels, Essex Street, Fremantle from 26th January to 25th February 2010.