Legacy 2022, 2021
This piece continues a series of Melaleuca pressiana paperbark studies from the Walpole Wilderness that I am working on. Here, there are extensive areas of inland Moonah, Modong or Stout Paperbark woodland remnants, trees up to ten metres tall or more and hundreds to a thousand years old. Each tree is wind swept, sculptured by the natural elements including fire and time. Each have a story to tell in their shape, curve, knot, and scars.
Working with ink on rice paper, drawing, following, and exploring the wood grain or branch line is a contemplative act. Ink is soaked up by the paper, while constant fine marking alters the texture. The process is mesmeric while the fragility and vulnerability of both paper and paperbark trees are connected, then preserved in encaustic wax.