In 2024, I was given the opportunity to intern at Ernabella Arts, the oldest Indigenous Art Centre in Australia, located in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands community of Pukatja, South Australia. For ten weeks I worked alongside the painting studio manager and a group of mostly senior artists, witnessing the creation of significant, large-scale works. They painted their stories with a quiet power and momentum that was humbling to be near.

On weekends, I took my own painting materials out into Country, travelling on foot to various locations. Flies swarming, ferocious winds, chasing the golden light across red dirt. Wild horses, donkeys, and birds, Desi the dog at my feet. I painted what surrounded me, mesmerised by the landscape. Over time what began as observation became a connection, to the land, to the community, to the act of looking slowly. This body of work was made entirely en plein air on the APY Lands.