Description
This is the 8th painting from a series of 8 oil paintings inspired by my visit to Australia. I produced a small watercolour painting on location but I was keen to paint a larger work in my preferred medium of oil paint on my return to my studio in the U.K. Cooper Park is a jungle like, densely populated park with tropical plants and trees. I visited on a glorious summer’s day where the sun streaked through the trees and dappled the tracks.
When I was working on the en plein air watercolour study I set up my easel slighty off the track under trees in order that passers-by could pass by without my easel causing an obstruction. During the time I was painting no-one actually did pass by. My water containers were hung on branches and I almost became part of the undergrowth. A few weeks after my return to the U.K. my son sent me a news article where it was feared that a visitor to Cooper Park had been bitten by a Sydney Funnel-Web Spider. Happily, they had NOT been bitten by this particular species of spider. I then discovered that the Sydney Funnel-Web Spider is the most venomous spider in the world and that they are quite common in Cooper Park! This might just be the last painting I ever do inspired by Cooper Park!
