2004 charcoal and pastel on cloth

A Blue Horizon digital print 2006

Blue Gum Forest – A Fire Sojourn

The special iconic Blue Gum Forest has been burnt too often in modern times

Still it stands a galleon of trees on alluvial sands

Each tree needs someone to keep it safe in future time

A guardian of self in a selfless clime

By Wyn Jones

2007 acrylic on canvas

The marks of our Ancestors were minimal: the marks on a scar tree, the foot-holds of the possum hunters and the ghosts of a past time.

By Leanne Tobin, Dharug

Oil on Linen

This particular painting represents what was revealed by the fires that swept through the Mt Victoria and Blackheath area late 2006 - the ones that took out the Blue Gum Forest.

I’d been keen to do some bushfire landscapes for a while. Finding the way to Asgard Swamp I wandered about the area near the old cemetery at Mt Victoria.

I spent a couple of weeks returning to this spot filled with an amazing array of colours. A palette of chromes: oranges, reds and russets. Yellows of lemon and ochre. All set off by a variety of greys.

But it was the refuse of old bottles, asbestos and this tricycle wheel interspersed with ash, stones, seed pods and leaves which echoed the colours of the wider landscape which I wanted to depict. I found, despite the knowledge of greater devastations, this to be a sublimely inevitable return of the bird life.

A few weeks later with a touch of rain the scene was already evolving, with lime green tendrils sprouting amongst the scene I’d painted.

- Roland Hemmert

This photograph was taken by my grandfather whilst bushwalking in 1939.

My grandfather was an avid bushwalker and introduced me to it when I was very young. Furthermore, my grandmother was a botanist, so she fostered in me a love for trees and plants from an early age. So between them I had no choice but to love the bush.

The stories and photographs my grandfather and grandmother shared with me about their experiences trekking through the Blue Mountains helped create the awe and fascination I have for the place now.

My grandfather was a keen photographer and could always be seen with his camera wherever he travelled. The photographs he took on his bushwalks in the Blue Mountains are, in my opinion, the best in his collection and the inspiration for my own work.

- Helen Deane

Watercolour 2005

Recently I returned, after 40 years, to visit the house that I grew up in until I was eight years old just outside Melbourne.

Among the recollections this triggered was one which took me by surprise a little. I recognized immediately the tree by the front driveway entrance that I played around and looked at repeatedly when I was so young and full of curiosity. I suppose I didn’t expect this eucalypt to still be there, fairly unchanged from my memories of it so many years later. It’s distinctive trunk still displayed the same smoothish bark with contrasting patches of rougher bark which intrigued me then and which I discovered could be peeled and flaked off in a most satisfying manner!

To anyone else this tree would be just another common, hardy gum tree, but to me it was an old friend as familiar as any person well known to me that I may have bumped into after so many years.

All my life I have enjoyed looking at the trunks and canopies of eucalypts and they continue to provide pleasure and inspiration. The varieties of form, colour and texture seem infinite because there are so many species of eucalypt. ( There are over 300 species in the Sydney sandstone basin alone. ) I have always admired their grace and beauty, but also their resilience in surviving our harsh climatic extremes. The Aboriginal people believe that each person has a symbolic totem from nature to reflect their connection to the spirits of the earth. I often think that in their culture my totem would be a tree; a eucalyptus tree.

Owen Thompson is represented by Katoomba Fine Art Gallery.

Mixed Media

The artwork I create takes elements directly from the landscape and reconfigures them into new forms.

Elements such as gum leaves, and twigs become the materials from which I work and are reconfigured into grids on a paper creating a 3 dimensional meditative grid.

The work becomes an ephemeral yet tangible interpretation of my experience in this unique part of Australia.

I enjoy bushwalking in the mountains and am always inspired by the subtlety in shapes and tones of the fallen leaves.

- James Blackwell

I am a nature photographer who has walked the Blue Mountains for nearly 40 years. My photography grew out of bushwalking and a desire to convey my love of wild nature, the endless pageant of mood, colour, life, land and change, and to inspire its protection. Using a large format camera, I particularly enjoy translating the beauty of mountain vegetation, that can seem so chaotic but holds such rhythm and nuance.

Ian Brown’s images have appeared in numerous nature calendars and diaries, books and magazines, as well as his own book Wild Blue: World Heritage Splendour of the Greater Blue Mountains.

2004 sculptured wood from salvaged eucalyptus tree.
Photo: Keith Maxwell

Bush Nirvana - Patrick Monden

Moisture rises from the rain damp bush in the heat
A sensuous mix of native tree and flower oils
The subtle hint of ancient oceans, eroding sandstone
This complete aromatherapy entices my mind to dream
I lay down in the remnant of a giant tree
I rest, at peace now with all of nature
Cradled by decaying wood, once again in mother’s arms
Just leave me here, forget about me, time is nothing now
Let me sink deep into the land breathing the slow rhythm of life
Let me expand into the harmony of earth and sky as one
Let me absorb the pure light of day and night
Let me drink the nourishing rains through my every pore
Let insects come to satisfy their need with their bodily fluids
Let the carnivores come to devour flesh and consume marrow
Let the relentless elements erode my bones in due time
Let me rejoice in freedom with the spirits of the land
Then let me be forgotten to exist with eternal presence
In my bush nirvana.

Deep Roots - Patrick Monden

In the wide heavens starlight plays
The divine show of our greater purpose
A beaming great sun that illuminates days
So we can bear witness to all natures’ surplus
A wondrous plan of life we can all share
On a physical paradise man does tread
Greatest task is in tending our garden with care
All the hopes that we cherish will soon bear us fruit
There is plenty for all to enjoy a good life
The dream of world peace shall grow with deep root
An end to the times of great suffering and strife
With love unconditional our planet we bless
Every creature alive, people of every race
Knowing we cannot own but may briefly caress
All the beauty we see in our fleeting embrace.

I am a nature photographer who has walked the Blue Mountains for nearly 40 years. My photography grew out of bushwalking and a desire to convey my love of wild nature, the endless pageant of mood, colour, life, land and change, and to inspire its protection. Using a large format camera, I particularly enjoy translating the beauty of mountain vegetation, that can seem so chaotic but holds such rhythm and nuance.

Ian Brown’s images have appeared in numerous nature calendars and diaries, books and magazines, as well as his own book Wild Blue: World Heritage Splendour of the Greater Blue Mountains.

Oil on canvas

Stone Country is a series I’ve been working on for the past 2 to 3 years inspired by a reserve out near Tarana called Evans Crown. An Aboriginal place of spiritual significance it was brought to my attention by anthropologist, Dr Dianne Johnson.

It’s a place I enjoy going bushwalking in and it has an abundance of parrots and kookaburras, the latter whose laugh quite often welcomes one upon arrival. I’ve taken some of my closest friends to share in what I consider one of my top 10 spiritual sites. My friends who have always seen my paintings of the area beforehand are equally moved by the feel of this area.

It is a place ‘peopled’ by huge granite tors and the eucalypts is a curious thing indeed. In an unusual symbiosis the trees quite often twist, twine and curve to the forms of the rock and often a partly fallen tree whilst still rooted in the earth will follow the curvature of a boulder and then continue to strive up towards the canopy of its fellows.

Another aspect of this place is the abundance of leaf litter. Wildlife here have an early warning device created by nature. No one can enter without the crunch and snap of leaves and twigs alerting the animals of one’s presence.

As for the bushwalker, one is for ever on the lookout for snakes, as aided by the trees’ shadows it’s often hard to distinguish snake from stick….or as a friend viewing this painting has called them, ‘snicks’.

I am currently still working on paintings of this area. As my friend Joan remarked on a walk out there, “It would provide you with a lifetime of painting.” I’m inclined to agree.

2006 pen and ink drawing

This work was inspired originally as a memorial tribute to my aunty, Yvonne du Moulin, who also was an artist.

Our time, it seemed to be making its own journey until it became a comment about turning our left over or unwanted things and into something of value or something that gives life. I often use the Eucalypt tree in my work to symbolize the growth of something beyond ourselves.

This work is a contemplative piece that took time to evolve with many hours spent dreaming while I draw. The evolution of landscape painting, begins with your visions and feelings. It then flows from your body onto a working surface, until finally an instinctive image emerges.

My ongoing interest is in depicting a vision for the changing Australian landscape. It is my desire to create a common language that encourages connection between humans in need of spiritual meaning and the natural world, using colour, texture and symbols.

The Joy of a Raindrop

The heavens open and raindrops fall from above.

Under the stand of Gum trees, deep in a rainforest, surrounded by a rockshelf of ferns and glow worms sits a yabbie.

The water in this stream is clean, the plants are all native local to the area, the birds feed from the large gums and the lyrebirds call out.

The raindrop falls near the green gate along the Oaklands Road Fire Trail missing the houses, the blackberry, monbretia, stormwater, beds of weeds and silt run off from the local suburb.

The raindrop avoids the road, the potholes, the silt trap and the petrol and oil from the daily transition of vehicles around the edge of Horseshoe Falls Reserve.

The raindrop flows down stream, over the beautiful falls at Glow Worm Nook Falls, passed the yabbie and onward into an area it was meant to be.

For the Horseshoe Falls Bushcare Group and Bushcarers this is the joy of many years hard work removing weeds, planting local natives, cleaning rubbish and working on tracks.

To see a yabbie year after year, to see a stand of gums recover, to see young natives regenerate, to see the birds feeding and to see the bush stand strong is to enjoy the joy of a raindrop.

By David King, Gundungurra

The Joy of a Raindrop

The heavens open and raindrops fall from above.

Under the stand of Gum trees, deep in a rainforest, surrounded by a rockshelf of ferns and glow worms sits a yabbie.

The water in this stream is clean, the plants are all native local to the area, the birds feed from the large gums and the lyrebirds call out.

The raindrop falls near the green gate along the Oaklands Road Fire Trail missing the houses, the blackberry, monbretia, stormwater, beds of weeds and silt run off from the local suburb.

The raindrop avoids the road, the potholes, the silt trap and the petrol and oil from the daily transition of vehicles around the edge of Horseshoe Falls Reserve.

The raindrop flows down stream, over the beautiful falls at Glow Worm Nook Falls, passed the yabbie and onward into an area it was meant to be.

For the Horseshoe Falls Bushcare Group and Bushcarers this is the joy of many years hard work removing weeds, planting local natives, cleaning rubbish and working on tracks.

To see a yabbie year after year, to see a stand of gums recover, to see young natives regenerate, to see the birds feeding and to see the bush stand strong is to enjoy the joy of a raindrop.

By David King, Gundungurra

Photo 2002

I live in Warrimoo in the Blue Mountains. On December 26th 2001, bushfires raged through our area. With little warning, my studio and our garage were engulfed in flames. The clothes we had quickly gathered and put in the car, along with many precious items, were lost.

Thankfully our house survived, and we survived. From amongst the fire debris I collected new, transformed objects, remnants of the things my family had tried to save, and in the bush I found abundant reawakening.

My art is a response to seeing the beauty in the changes that happened, the beauty in the bush as it recovers, and the strange beauty that fire creates. This work is about recovery too, for all the families who suffered as a result of those fires.

- Christine Stickley