OLD MAN BOLLON

My portrait of a distinctly gnarly and wicked looking old tree on the banks of Wallam Creek, nearly 1000km west of Brisbane, in Western Queensland.

Like so many of the ancient trees out here, it is definitely sentient and looks VERY human in character. As I painted its trunk and limbs, the streaky bark and knobbly lumps and bumps, I thought how like a person it is. And then I suddenly saw the face and the mischievous expression it showed me!!! Call me fanciful if you like, but I felt in that moment that we were kin, related, it even had hair like mine!

Is it the tree that paints its own portrait through Kate’s brush? OR WAS IT A PORTRAIT OF the artist Seen through ancient arboreal eyes?