I think more and more in my research I realised there were so many plants that had become endangered.

You know, that’s really concerning for us as a planet.

I think there’s an awareness there, but then it’s also a protection and I think we all have that part to play to making sure we are not only looking after but embracing Mother Nature.

Through my research, I spend quite a bit of time in libraries, you know, the State Library in Sydney or the botanical library there and start to really look at plants that have become endangered.

And of course now with science they’re bringing back, you know, there’s lots of seed banks across the world.

So that intrigues me.

That man has ruined Mother Nature, but at the same time, they’re also trying to protect it and bring it back.

So I love the idea of finding something that has been endangered and then giving it a new twist on it.

Swimming in the Clouds is part of Above the Canopy.

And when I first heard that the show was going to be called Above the Canopy, in my head, it meant, well does that mean?

It’s sort of floating through the canopy or is it floating down through the canopy?

For me, the work really needed to replicate that, that for the viewer, it was up to them to decide whether plant forms were sort of drifting away or were they drifting down and through.

The name of it, Swimming in the Clouds actually came to me.

I was standing in a very cold lake about to dive in and on the surface of the lake, you could see the reflection of the clouds.

And the clouds just sort of started to roll and move.

And it was just one of those moments that were quite extraordinary and then diving in, it was quite weedy and I thought this would be an extraordinary name for a painting.

So the detail is both macro and micro.

So you see plant forms that are highlighted with a lot of detail that is quite cellular looking.

There’s even bubbles that are almost, you know, protecting the plant form.

It’s almost sealing that plant form and you can look in, but it’s protected.

But I love that idea of looking at cellular forms and then sort of looking through it into different form and shape and colour.

There are moments in our life that returning back into Mother Nature is very restorative.

There’s something about, that returning to nature that is very holistic.

And I love that in the work that although there’s a real twist to the DNA and a lot of the entry point is colour, but at the end of it I want the eye to travel around the canvas and it’s up to them for that small moment in time to just stop and look at it and hopefully bring some joy.