You may have recognized the title.

Taken from the lines of the Australian national anthem “Advance Australia Fair”.

The painting is part of a continuing series “The Red Dust Girl” which amongst other things celebrates isolation, solitude, landscape and the Australian spirit.

“We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil, Our home is girt by sea”

This was my first real use of gold leaf which you can see here in the coat sleeves, buttons and edging around the coat. Usually I just work in oil and the occasional collaged piece here and there.

I sketched this one out about a year ago whilst thinking about that line “Girt By Sea” which I scratched down in my sketch book. I have had a fascination with Colonial Australia for some time now and even painted a large portrait of Edward John Eyre once. So here I got to finally combine my early explorer imagery with the series I am most keen on continuing.

“When gallant Cook from Albion sail’d, To trace wide oceans o’er, True British courage bore him on, Till he landed on our shore”

Some of you may notice a recurring motif in my work. The “stick man” in the sleeve design makes another appearance. For me it represents the real beginning of drawing or the first marks, certainly for myself. It is never far from my mind “this beginning”.

We have all been there.. way back as small children trying to draw.. pure, innocent line. It still attracts me. That very same sense of wanting to interpret my surroundings, my environment, my self and my place within it.

It’s still as exciting as those first marks, those first stick man figures. I try to never forget that.