In 2006, I spent a month alone at Ochre House, Fowlers Gap in desert conditions as part of the UNSW, Iliri Artist Scholar Program run by the College of Fine Arts. Isolated in desert stone country with intense heat and fierce global winds. Standing alone on the edge of a line of hills facing a sunken desert basin, buffeted by harsh winds, I questioned the power of abstraction to address the environmental issues of our time.

Initially I started recording the experience through automative minimal sketches and then I started studies of the salt bush. As a muralist I have the facility to record imagery but had not wanted to do so until I had something to say. The salt bush become a symbol for me of the land.  In terms of painting I had completed a full circle through minimalism back to work reminiscent of painting in my show D'Stilled 1994.