But the creative journey is never a straight line. What begins in the field continues to shift as it moves into the studio. I am always watching how an early perception evolves once it enters a slower process of drawing, painting and re-painting. The real fascination lies in the change itself — in trying to retain the vitality of that first encounter while allowing the work to become something deeper and more considered on the canvas.

In Australia, the environment is never static. Climate shapes the landscape through dramatic, often unforgiving extremes. Places that initially draw me into a new series are quickly challenged — and sometimes entirely redefined — by what follows. Drought, flood, heat, wind, erosion. The land does not simply present itself; it endures.

This week, we are bracing again for heat, dryness and wind. The landscapes I return to are at the mercy of these conditions. To witness that endurance is both confronting and creatively vital. It asks that the work go beyond surface beauty and begin to hold something of the land’s resilience, its vulnerability, and its constant state of change.

Over time, the paintings become a record of this ongoing cycle — not a single moment, but a relationship. An attempt to translate not only what the land looks like, but what it carries.

Nat

Painting is a long process. The projects I’m drawn to often develop over years: returning to the same places, walking, observing, researching, sketching, and painting through seasons and change. Much of that thinking and making never appears publicly.

This space allows me to document the longer arc of the practice:

• Works in progress and completed paintings

• Major projects and exhibitions (including upcoming work in France)

• Reflections on place, process and research

• The quieter studio moments that sit underneath the public milestones.

Over the coming months I’ll be sharing more about current bodies of work, what I’m developing in the studio now, and how particular landscapes keep calling me back.

From time to time, subscribers here will also be offered early access to new groups of work before they are shown publicly.

If you’re interested in following a contemporary landscape practice as it unfolds, I’m glad you’re here.

— Nat

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