Take a Breath Painting

Photo Credit: Joseph Cooper Australia's vast and varied landscape is full of beauty and wonder - scenes that captivate the heart, stilling the very breath in your lungs. Wild and breath-takingly beautiful, this land is full of crashing waves, ancient cliffs, tropical rainforests, arid deserts, and delicate blooms. Ever-changing, the landscape is constantly ravaged by fierce storms, relentless droughts, magnificent floods, captivating bush fires ... and the simple rising and setting of the sun... completely transforming the earth into something totally new, yet just as magnificent.... The Blue Mountains is such a place that causes one to stop in their very tracks. Breathing in the fresh mountain air, tinted with the sweet scent of the eucalypts in bloom, sunshine reflects off the lush foliage of the surrounding rainforest. Eyes focused on the rough track through red and yellow autumn leaves covering the forest floor as we pick our way carefully towards the cliff's edge, I catch my breath as I look up to see the magnificence before me. Seeing those cliffs for the first time - such a wild, breath-taking beauty - I am captivated by the majesty of those rugged rocks of purple, amber, and cream. Trees and shrubs cling with determination to the sides of these vast cliff faces, dwarfed by the size of these great rock formations. I tell myself to take a breath, and we continue walking the tiny track cut into the side of this incredible cliff. The delicate flowers and tiny birds flitting across the path in front of us contrast with the magnificence of the cliffs beyond them.... (read the full artist statement at )