Banyule Works on Paper Award 2026 Streeton Camo

I'm honoured to be a finalist in the Banyule Works on Paper Award 2026.

The Banyule Award for Works on Paper is a prestigious national art prize awarded every two years to an outstanding contemporary work on paper. With a prize pool of $12,000, the winning artwork is acquired into the Banyule Art Collection. The 2026 finalists’ exhibition features 27 contemporary artworks displayed in Art Gallery 275 at the Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub.

The 2026 Banyule Award for Works on Paper finalists’ opening reception is on Friday 18 September from 6.30-8.30pm. The exhibition runs until 29 November 2026. ILCH, 275 Upper Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe. Melbourne.

Artist's Statement

"Heidelberg Camo" responds to Art Gallery 275's Heidelberg School from the National Collection. I closely scrutinised works by Clara Southern, Tom Roberts & Arthur Streeton, drawing and searching for a way to reconcile my conflicted relationship with Melbourne's colonial history.

I was enchanted by the artists' technical skill yet unnerved by their romanticised visions of heroic white settlers, empty landscapes and colonial leisure. Before colonisation, an estimated 60,000 Aboriginal people lived in Victoria. Within fifty years, they are strikingly absent from Heidelberg School paintings. I am drawn to the beauty of these works, while confronted by the history they camouflage, I leave both impressed and devastated.

In "Heidelberg Camo", Arthur Streeton is camouflaged by significant indigenous rocks found at Banyule Flats.

Streeton Camo, 2026

Gouache, ink & acrylic on paper

74cm x 56cm

The Mossy Earth

Thrilled to be invited to be part of 'Reconnection, Restoration, Revegetation and Reconciliation'

17 July - 30 August 2026 @ Art Gallery 275, ILCH. Naarm/Melbourne

The Mossy Earth depicts some of Banyule’s rare and endemic plant species. The threatened Rosella Spider Orchid is close to extinction, with only 300 known plants in Banyule and Nillumbik. It’s tiny purple and white petals provide ideal landing pads for Blue Banded Bees. The Veined Spider Orchid, found in Victoria and South Australia, is stunning with it’s small yellow, green and red flower.

The Nodding Greenhood, also known as The Parrot’s Beak is sociable growing in clusters in damp, mossy soil. It’s petals form an unusual hood and are pollinated by a fungus gnat attracted to a hormone produced by the plant.

Kangaroo grasses once covered Banyule’s treed plains. Here, the plant is shown flowering before drying in the warmer months feeding animals and dropping seeds ensuring the continuation of it’s precious life cycle.

In Spring Bogong Moths travel through Banyule during their annual migration to the Victorian Alps, returning in autumn. Although numbers of moths are increasing their future remains perilous.

I love them.

The Mossy Earth

Acrylic, ink and gouache on paper

110cm x 65cm, 2026

Home

Commission by MP Kate Thwaites for Parliament House, Canberra

I'm honoured to have created this work for Federal MP Kate Thwaites to be installed in Parliament House. I so wish my grandmother Thelma Smith were alive as she was a staunch ALP supporter. The work includes a list of the things Kate loves about our local environment. The Yellow Box Gum is a slow growing, resilient, tough tree that when mature is a home for a multitude of living things.

The platypus skull is a reminder of the naturally occuring cycles of life, each is beautiful and unique.

Home, 2026

Gouache, ink & charcoal on paper

100cm x 86cm