My husband and I recently returned home from a month-long sojourn in Australia. Two and one half weeks of that time was spent on a boat exploring some (for the most part) inaccessible sites along northern Australia’s coastline, from Cairns in the east to Broome in the west. It’s a big continent, thus in the process we traversed 2155 nautical miles(!). I had expected there would be opportunities to paint a few watercolours along the way, so I brought the materials to do so with me: thankfully, watercolours pack light.

Here below then are a few of the ones I consider keepers. Many were completed on land en plen air, within the hour or so allowed to me in the schedule of an ongoing journey. A few were completed later on board ship from a photograph. However, in all cases, I was able lay down the composition first, as a reaction to the scene before me. They are listed in chronological order.

Lizard Island. May 15, 2023. Watercolor on cold pressed paper. 6″ x 12′ or 15 x 30 cm. NFS

Lizard Island, a beautiful beach, north of Cairns, where the snorkelling was good! It was my inaugural watercolour of the trip, which turned out relatively well, despite having forgotten to bring a water well and blotting sponge(!!). It is listed NFS because we gave it to a crew member whose birthday turned out to be the following day.

Cape York. May 16, 2023. Watercolor on cold pressed paper. 6″ x 12″ or 15 x 30 cm

Cape York, containing the record of a blustery and overcast day at the northernmost tip of the Australian continent. The sea was strangely opaque with the unearthly colouring of a dull light green. Due to the changing light, sharp rocks and milling shoreside passengers, the painting conditions that day were deeply frustrating. I felt lucky to have gotten anything at all intelligible.

Mornington Island. May 18, 2023. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 9″ x 12′ or 23 x 30 cm.

Mornington Island, located in the Gulf of Carpenteria. It’s a dry and dusty island hosting a settlement of the Lardil people, one of the original tribes of Northern Australia. They greeted us with their dancing and welcomed us to their art centre, where art is both created and sold. As I walked, returning to the boat, I was struck front-and-centre by this composition of a light green building with its orange tin roof. Thankfully, a crew member took a photo for me (I had forgotten my camera) as we were all herded back to the waiting zodiacs.

Victoria Settlement. May 21, 2023. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 9″ x 12″ or 23 x 30 cm.

Victoria Settlement is located on the Cobourg Peninsula. It contains all that remains of an 1838  failed British settlement. Wandering the area I was struck by the symmetrical ruins of the crumbled-and-still-yet-crumbling chimney stacks of the four remaining homes. Perhaps they could have spared themselves the effort? For Shelly had already penned Ozymandias in 1817. But that’s not how ignorance and vanity really work.

Koolama Bay. May 26, 2023. Watercolor on cold pressed paper. 6″ x 12″ or 15 x 30 cm.

Koolama Bay. We were anchored here one afternoon when I had elected not to join the zodiac boats touring the mangroves (and the crocodiles). The composition noted here moved back and forth into view as the boat swivelled ever so gently on its anchor. The view became more and more spectacular as the setting sun illuminated the sandstone cliffs rising above the turquoise water. Wow! When nature displays its magnificence to us all we can truly do is marvel.

Jar Island. May 27, 2023. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 9″ x 12″ or 23 x 30 cm. SOLD

Jar Island. We came ashore here one morning. With the others I hiked up a short incline to view the amazing ancient art painted on the cliffs and caves above. Ha!  But there appeared to still be enough time to capture a small watercolor of the shore-scape, or so I thought. After the composition, I was laying in my washes when the crew herded us once again back onto the zodiacs. Had to finish it on board afterwards, though I already had a good idea of where I wanted to go.

Hunter River. May 28, 2023. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 6″ x 12″ or 15 x 30 cm.

Hunter River. We were moored here for the afternoon after an exhilarating morning helicopter ride to view Mitchell Falls. It’s a seasonal waterfall, which torrents as one cascade during the rainy season but subsides to a trickle by the end of the dry. We caught it as a series of four – so between effulgence and poverty. For this watercolor on the left, as in Koolama Bay above, the sandstone cliffs of the Kimberley rising out of the turquoise waters were nothing short of magnificent, not to mention the added spotlight of the setting sun.

I hope you enjoy these and yes (except for Lizard Island), they are for sale. Fifty dollars a pop, unmatted, unframed, plus the cost of a mailing tube (say, three dollars) and postage (usually around twenty-five dollars, depending on your location). All proceeds will be donated to our favourite local charity, Vrienden der Blinden (the seeing-eye dog-training facility for West Vlaanderen in Belgium). Please contact me if you are interested. Sizes and locations are noted under each image, so please specify.