The creek bed

The creek bed shows the artificial channel formed by erosion after the landscape was denuded of dense mulga scrub for wood used as stopes in the mines in the 1880s. The bright orange colour of the cut banks compliments the soft grey-green salt bush. The eroded channel contrasts with my paintings of naturally formed creek beds lined with trees. This is one of many outback landscapes that I painted during holidays when I went home to Broken Hill from boarding school in Adelaide. My parents would drive me to a remote location with my art equipment and a flagon of water, picking me up at the end of the day with my new work.