Chris O’Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa) Gum trunk with banksias

This painting was based on a drawing I made while on a visit to an upland swamp in the Blue Mountains in NSW with a group of artists and scientists. It is called the Leura swamp. The trip was part of The Painted River Project, a participatory art and science project devised by Leo Robba from Western Sydney University. It seeks to better value our water and river systems and how we care for them. We spent a couple of days drawing, painting and photographing the swamp and its creatures. The gum trunk and the surrounding trees and banksias in the picture had been burnt in a recent bushfire.

Reg Mombassa, 2021