Storm Coming Cunnamulla Painting

During the 2021 Covid lockdowns, I travelled 8,000 km through outback Queensland with my husband and fellow artist, Paul Rees. The Enormous Vastness series is inspired by the beauty of the landscapes we saw. The series title is a line from a song called 'Droving Woman' by Australian Aboriginal singer-songwriter Kev Carmody. He wrote: 'The enormous vastness of them inland plains gives a lonely contentment to which you can't put a name, it’s satisfied glow city folks seldom attain, they spend life on a right rigid rail'. This became the theme song for our journey. Outback Queensland is hard but beautiful. Years go by without rain but 2021 was the first of three wet years so there was abundant vegetation and birdlife. There are never many people there but, during Covid, there were even fewer than usual. Sometimes we would drive all day and not see another car. We took lots of photos and painted most days because there was always something beautiful to see if we slowed right down. We would quietly paint in watercolours near a creek or waterhole for two or three hours. After a while, the native animals and birds got used to our presence. One day, two emus came in for a drink only metres away. These photos and watercolours became the basis for our oil paintings which we completed over 18 months back in our Brisbane studio. 'Storm Coming Cunnamulla' is dominated by huge looming storm clouds. It was late on a winter’s afternoon and I was not expecting a storm. The air and light suddenly changed and, when I came outside, I saw a massive storm almost over the town. The colours were strange and all was calm. There was no one in sight but luckily the washing had been brought inside. I wanted to capture the eerie atmosphere of that afternoon. I hope these paintings give you a feeling for the fragile beauty of outback Queensland.