Dancing Bird, Burnt Garden, 2020

This painting was created by Luke during the summer of 2019-2020 as an emotional response to the devastating bushfires that affected much of Eastern NSW. Luke was often alerted to the ominous presence of the bushfires by the smell of smoke in the air. The painting has a predominantly black background representing a charred landscape, with plastic straws to resemble burnt branches and clusters of painted paper that Luke has scrunched and applied to the canvas.

(This work has previously exhibited as part of 'Big Bang' Studio Artes online exhibition Dec 2021)