“‘We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and out little life Is rounded with a sleep’ - Shakespeare, The Tempest. The words of Prospero have been drumming in my head as the images for ‘Beaches, Bush and Beyond’ developed.”

“As a watercolourist I love playing with the will of the water. It has its own spirit and flows where it likes and my joy is to let it take me on a voyage of discovery. Often it puddles and pools in unlikely spots and so,k to me, it has a spontaneity aptly suited to its kin, the landscape. On the other hand, the starkness of conté and ink has the immediacy of a jackhammer and seemed the perfect combination to use in depicting encroaching development. Our environment is fast becoming a soulless stage upon which slash and burn is the main act. However, we still hanker after our heritage as we grab our togs, pack the picnic and head for the beach. There seems to be a bizarre paradox unfolding in our dream crossed lifestyle and I have attempted to image this paradox in ‘Beaches, Bush and Beyond’. The beaches and bush have become shimmering glimpses snuggled in the jaws of development and, to add to the sense of the surreal, the actual paintings may be take out of the drawings so that only a void area is left.”

- Dr Karen Knight Mudie