Earlier this year, I spent two weeks in the South West of Western Australia holidaying with my beautiful family — a place that continues to draw me back, not only for its beauty, but for the way light moves so distinctly across its coastline.
Every summer of my childhood was spent down south, this is where I grew my love for the coast, and it’s such a joy to be able to holiday there with my own children all these years later. We even stay in the same caravan park, Mandalay Resort and Caravan Park, so it truly is carrying on the tradition.
During this time, I rose early on many mornings. I ventured out alone to some of the region’s most striking coastal landscapes, often returning in the evenings to witness the day’s final transformation at sunset.
These quiet moments — standing on the rocks with no one else around — became the foundation for my next body of work.
Experiencing the Coast at Sunrise and Sunset
There is something deeply powerful about experiencing the coastline at first light. Particularly when you stand on beaches normally packed with family's and tourists on hot summer days but at this time there is not even a single soul to be seen. Before the world wakes. The air is still, the colours restrained, and then, almost imperceptibly, the light begins to shift.
As the sun rises, the first rays skim across the surface of the rock formations, igniting warm tones within the stone — soft peaches, golds, deep reds and subtle violets — colours that disappear once the light fully arrives. At sunset, those same rocks take on a different character, with longer shadows, richer contrasts, and a quiet sense of closure at the end of the day.
It is this fleeting transformation — the brief moment when light reshapes the landscape — that I am most drawn to capture in my oil paintings.
Iconic Locations
Throughout my time in the South West, I visited several iconic coastal locations that will feature strongly in my upcoming collection. Each offered its own rhythm, texture, and interaction with light.
Canal Rocks revealed powerful sculptural forms carved by water and time, with sunrise light catching the edges of the rock channels in soft gold.
Gannet Rock offered expansive ocean views, where early morning light shimmered across wet stone and still waters.
Castle Rock, with its dramatic formations, became a focal point for studying how light illuminates spray, rock faces, and moving water simultaneously.
Shelly Beach provided a gentler, more intimate setting — quieter, softer, and rich with subtle colour shifts at dawn.
Wyadup Rocks delivered expansive scenes and strong forms, especially striking as the sun dipped lower in the sky at sunset.
At each location, I spent time simply observing — watching how light travelled across the shoreline, how it interacted with moisture on the rocks, and how colour intensified or softened from moment to moment.
Photographing Light as Reference for Oil Paintings
While photography plays an important role in my process, it is never about capturing a perfect image. Instead, it allows me to record the conditions — the angle of light, the colour temperature, the relationship between shadow and illumination — so that I can later interpret these moments in the studio through oil paint.
I took hundreds of reference photographs during this trip, always returning to the same question: What does this light feel like?
That question guides how I translate these scenes into paintings — focusing not just on realism, but on emotional resonance and atmosphere.
A New Body of Work Inspired by the South West Coast
This journey has become the foundation for my next collection of oil paintings, centred on sunrise and sunset along the South West coast of Western Australia. The works will explore themes of stillness, solitude, and quiet observation — moments where land, sea, and light exist in perfect balance.
Each painting will be a meditation on place, created slowly and deliberately in the studio, allowing the memory of those early mornings and peaceful evenings to inform every layer of paint, and you know there will be many.
