Killing Fields 56cm X 56cm oil on linen

This work is from my series looking at deforestation. It was a study for a larger work of the same name and finalist in the 2025 Calleen Art Award at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery in NSW. This was the entry notes that I wrote about the painting.

Killing fields

The film The Killing Fields came out in 1984 when I was studying plant biology at Uni. Whilst the film was about the destruction of lives in Cambodia, I was studying another kind of destruction, that of the environment. Back then I believed that the trajectory would change, but it never has. If you’ve ever stood in an expanse of logged forest, you can’t help but be moved by the destruction and the waste, with half what’s felled, left to rot. This work was inspired by a painting trip to Tasmania and the “killing fields” in the North.