Trees Connecting, Summer of Smoke, Hillston: Gardens: Fragments of Life and Loss

This eight-panelled painting is part of a larger series that seeks to capture the shifting views we encounter as we move through a garden—moments of connection, perspective, and change. As the title Trees Connecting suggests, the work focuses on the visual and symbolic links formed by trees within the landscape, acting as bridges between spaces, ideas, and experiences. The creation and cultivation of a garden—its growth, care, and ongoing transformation—shares many parallels with the process of painting. Both require patience, attention, and an understanding of time as something lived and layered. This connection is further echoed in William Cowper’s notion that gardening offers an organic perspective on the passage of time, a sentiment that deeply informs the spirit of this work. These ideas are embedded in the making of the piece itself, where each panel captures a different moment in the garden’s evolving life, forming a cohesive whole through repetition, variation, and quiet reflection.

This painting is from the exhibition and publication, Gardens: Fragments of Life and Loss – an artistic enquiry that systematically explores themes of memory, impermanence, and transformation through the motif of the garden. Drawing upon visual language and observational practices, the body of work investigates how natural environments serve as metaphors for human experience, particularly in relation to loss and regeneration. The paintings communicate knowledge by documenting and interpreting the cyclical processes of change and adaptation in nature, offering insights into how landscapes reflect emotional and cultural memory. This body of work contributes to interdisciplinary dialogues between art, ecology, and the human condition through a methodical engagement with site, material, and temporality.