Oil on linen. 100 × 100 cm
The inspiration was from a memory that came to me as I began laying transparent washes down on the canvas, enjoying the richness developing. The memory was of a visit to northern Victoria and awakening on a frosty morning to the sound of a flock of sulphur crested cockatoos flying into the valley below, seeming to be surveying the landscape after the previous afternoons grass fire. I was at the time greatly attracted to the contrasting aspects of white birds dropping through the trees and the blackened landscape smattered with a smudgy-white frost.