Collie Art Prize Finalist

26 Feb 2025

Salt Lake, Koi Kyeunu-ruff (Stirling Range), 2024
140 x 135 cm, oil and beeswax on canvas

Thrilled to be selected as a finalist in one of Australia's richest regional art prizes. Opening this Saturday March 1, 6pm, Collie Art Gallery WA.

Artist Statement

My paintings seek a poetic space where dualities such as abstraction and figuration, dark and light, dense and sparse strive for equilibrium - whilst highlighting the evocative pleasures of paint.
The prominent mountain range in the Great Southern region of Western Australia was recorded in 1831 by surgeon and explorer Dr Alexander Collie, as Koi Kyeunu-ruff (place of ever moving mist and fog) - a beautiful name provided by his Noongar guide and friend, Mokare - a man Dr Collie later requested to buried alongside.
By 1835, Koi Kyeunu-ruff was officially named the Stirling Range in honour of the Colony's first Governor.
Encouragingly, dual naming is becoming more common - a sign that we are gradually maturing as a nation and reshaping out cultural identity.