In March I was very privileged to be chosen as the first artist to participate in a wonderful new initiative in our local community – Art Post Uki.

Art Post Uki is a roving exhibition of local artists works on display at the heritage post office, recently restored and renovated by the new post master, Gary Wall.  Gary is so excited to be able to bring an element of art and culture to the historic building.

“We are passionate about cultivating and fostering local home-grown talent, bringing employment opportunities and sharing a love for this historic, vibrant town, so what better way than launch a series of roving art exhibitions to support local artists.”

Located in the heart of the Northern Rivers’ historic village, Art Post Uki provides a vibrant space that integrates a passion for art and coffee within a Post Office. Built in 1909, and recently restored, the heritage-listed Uki Post Office provides a unique platform to showcase and support local artwork which reflects Uki and Northern NSW.

The exhibition featured a variety of images from my children’s books, along with prints, books and DVDs and was launched by the wonderful Lynden Stone. I feel very honored to have been the first artist to take part in this wonderful event, and look forward to seeing other local artist’s works in the future.

I hope you enjoy some of the photos from the night, courtesy of local photographers Alan and Perri Wain of Vibrant Imaging.

I have recently participated in the Unmasking the Wild Exhibition created by Author Isobelle Carmody in celebration of the Obernewtyn Chronicles.

The Exhibition features painted masks created by well known Children’s book Illustrators. The masks are currently being auctioned off to help raise funds for the Children in Crisis Fund and Animals Asia.

You can view or bid on my mask here, or bid on other artist’s fantastic creations.

Congratulations to Isobelle for the incredible work she has put into this very worthwhile project.

Heidi’s Place Bookstore Mural

One of the exciting projects I was involved with this year, was the collaborative painting of my very first mural. There is a bookstore in our local town, Murwillumbah, called Heidi’s Place, which recently moved to the main street and took on a complete makeover as a specialist children’s book store. The two lovely people who run Heidi’s Place, Heidi and Renae, asked my partner Tina and I to paint a floor and wall mural for the new premises. It was an enormously rewarding experience and we completed the mural in three days.

I was honoured to be asked to open Heidi’s Place at a ceremony on it’s first day of trading in the new location, and doubly honoured to have Heidi’s Place formally launch Teacup on the same day: their first official event.  Here are some images of Tina and I creating the mural.

Creation of “Teacup” paintings

Working on Rebecca Young’s beautiful and sensitive picture book Teacup was a magical experience for me. I was given full creative control by Scholastic and chose to paint the images as large oil paintings.

The process was a very long and involved one and some of the paintings took over a month to complete, with the artwork as a whole taking over 9 months (whilst working on other projects).

I wanted to create a sense of the great expanses of the ocean, of the raging moods of the sea, but all contained within a mood of stillness. The works are a mediation on loss, freedom, hope and belonging. My inspiration for this approach was Rebecca’s absolutely gorgeous and poetic text.

Signed limited edition prints and the book itself can be purchased from my website through the shop.

Below are some pictures of me working on the artworks to give you a sense of there scale.