Childhood by the Sea (2015)
"I grew up by the sea and I miss it. As one grows more aged, memory becomes a powerful force, and I'm constantly reminded of my childhood at Bondi. I played on the beach, and it was my imaginary world. We'd jump on bluebottles stranded on the sand to hear them pop; gaze at the horizon and spot ships sailing away.
"The head in the picture is me, metaphorically speaking, a child loving swimming in the bouncing, rolling sea, with all these wondrous creatures in the water around me. I've always loved squid for their wiggly shapes and graceful movement of their tentacles. 
"Feeling the surging movement of the ocean, the push and pull of the tides, riding waves and dumpers, absorbing the sounds and glorious sunny colours ... my whole psyche is being informed. I was absorbing this without realising it. Love of nature is in my DNA from my earliest memories.
"I love edges - the edge of the coast, the edge of the void. So much happens on the edges.
"In Australia, we are so blessed with these wonderful experiences, full of optimism, these childhood moments playing by the sea."
Morning at the Lily Pond (2015)
"This is a celebration of the bounties of nature, bursting with joyousness. I fell in love with tropical lily ponds on a trip to northern Queensland in the 1970s.
"I'm in this delicious pond, with the waterlilies and frogs and fluctuations of movement, the tropical light draining down on the lush yellows, blues and greens, and I'm in heaven. I want the paint to sing on the canvas,
"I become whatever I am painting, the frog, the waterlilies, all the swirling organisms in the pond. Once I get the rhythm going, the painting propels itself along. It's exhilarating feeling this intimacy with the natural world.
"My mad love affair with frogs began with a tree frog I saw on that trip. I loved the crazy articulation of their limbs, the surprising way they suddenly leap, the humour in their big eyes and physical agility. I love the contradiction of this animated frog coming out of the still lily pond.
"I did a few frog paintings, and they sold like rockets, then everyone demanded them, so much so it terrified me. Why are people fascinated with frogs? It is the transfiguration from a tadpole to a frog? Or is that frog really a Double Bay dowager? Or if you kiss a frog, he turns into a prince?
"I've been mad about gulping pelicans, brolgas dancing in great leaps, giraffes with dappled gangling legs.
"Nature is my muse, a constant source of enlightenment and magic."
Where Wattle Pollen Stains the Doubting Heart (2014)
"I love painting wattle, it's a joyous explosion of colour. Yellow is such a magical, optimistic, sunny colour.
"[French artist] Bonnard loved yellow. A friend was watching Bonnard painting his final picture, and commented: 'I think there's too much yellow in it.' Bonnard replied: 'Yes, and I'm going to give it more yellow, and more yellow.'
"This work is inspired by the poem Terra Australis, written by my friend the late James McAuley. It's his introspective journey into the Australian landscape and has evocative lines ...
'The wattle/Scatters the pollen on the doubting heart ...'
"I've painted the Riverina country just outside Canberra, where the Murrumbidgee River winds its way around. Wattle is such a wonderful contrast against that lovely dry-biscuit ochre landscape.
"The dark brown central heart is a symbolic large seed pod, and honey birds are hovering around it, feasting on wattle blossoms.
"There are multiple meanings in the doubting heart and seed pod metaphor. It can be that in moments of intense self-doubt, seeing glorious wattle blossom can reaffirm our faith in ourselves; remind us of that eternal optimism, that nature rejuvenates itself and continues the cycle of life - and so can we."
Lake Eyre the Desert Sea (2014)
"I first went to Lake Eyre in 1974. It was only the second time it had flooded, since Cook landed in Australia. Swollen rivers poured in to fill the dry lake, transforming it into a vast inland sea.
"I became fascinated with the paradox of Lake Eyre: there it is, and there it isn't.
"Suddenly the silent dry salt pans transform into a vast lake filled with fish, flotillas of noisy birds and animal life teem in. Then it dries out and becomes a vast silent, salt-encrusted expanse again.
"Lake Eyre has a special spiritual quality that kept drawing me back, time and again. It's so full of wondrous contradictions and enigmas, which inspire more meditative contemplation."
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