Artist Statement

Artist Statement

"I was struck not only by the resilience and ingenuity of nature, but by its ability to recover after such destructive human intervention."

I recently travelled to South Australia and the Eyre Peninsula with no expectations — just my painting kit. My sister and I set up camp at Coffin Bay, where we swam every morning in some of the most pristine water I have ever seen.

While there, I became fascinated by the story of the local oysters. After years of dredging, the oyster population had disappeared — there was simply nothing left for them to regenerate on. What amazed me was the return of life through the razorfish. Each razorfish was encrusted with oysters and supported mussels, pippies, crabs, baby crabs and even baby octopus. It was like a little town — a complete ecosystem all to itself.

It completely blew my mind. Not only did I witness how extraordinary and powerful Mother Nature is, but also how she finds a way to recover after humans have been so destructive. It gave me such hope.

This body of work is a direct response to that experience and my ongoing fascination with the natural world. For more than twenty years I have maintained a practice built on direct observation — working from life, from place, from the particular light and texture of a specific moment. The Eyre Peninsula asked something new of me: to sit with the invisible, to paint not just what the eye sees but what the ecosystem quietly holds.

My work has always moved between the human and the natural world. The portraits ask us to witness the inner life of a person — their resilience, their complexity, their untold story. The marine and landscape works ask the same of the natural world. Both are acts of looking closely. Both are acts of care.

I believe art has a role to play in how we understand and respond to the environment around us. These paintings are not documentation — they are a conversation. An invitation to pay attention, to feel the fragility and the stubborn, astonishing persistence of life.

Note on the edit: Dee's own words are so strong that they carry the statement. The additions simply extend her voice into a broader reflection on her practice — connecting the marine work back to the portraits, and grounding the whole in her philosophy of direct observation and care. The opening quote is pulled up as an epigraph, which gives it the weight it deserves.

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