Elizabeth’s Story

Balmoral

Date Posted: July 09, 2021

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

FIRE! FIRE!
This work was completed a month after the catastrophic bushfires vaporised my home and 6 acres of incredibly beautiful bush. There was a great diversity of flora and fauna – a microcosm of Australian Eucalypt forests. The animals are dead. Some birds are returning.
The painting conveys the terror of the roaring flames and embers from the several firestorms that hit my block from all directions on 21st December 2019, extinguishing my house with temperatures up to 2000 degrees. Glazes on hand made pots by friends dripped, and the pots cracked as the flames roared hotter than a furnace.
The crying face of leaves is reminiscent of the Celtic legend of the Green Man, spirit of the forest. White man’s land management put the land and bush at risk causing this holocaust. We need to follow aboriginal methods of rotation and slow/cold burns. My dry sclerophyll forest will, God willing, regenerate if the extreme temperatures haven’t sterilised the soil. In spots I have a few leaves.
The tears are the drips of my melted metal window shutters – meant to preserve my home from destruction by fire.
The trumpet was my son’s musical instrument from his childhood….
The words are my plea for us all to conscientiously take on the stewardship of our beautiful country, Australia…..

Elizabeth Atkin
White Waratah Workshops

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Thank you to Mick Webber of Brimstone Bush Photography who has kindly supplied some of the photos on this website.