THREE SWANS
Thurs 16th May - Sunday 30th June 2024
Painted Tree Gallery Northcliffe

The Three Swans theme was inspired by a bird count survey Sue and a friend conducted in the Leschenault Estuary during January this year.  Sue has been the keeper of count records since the early 2000s. Alarmingly, there were 1448 Black Swans, significantly less than the 5000+ that regularly graced the estuary twenty years ago. The exhibition is a chance to bear witness to this rapid decline of our State’s native faunal emblem and highlight concerns for its future.  Sue explains, “The Black Swans congregate each summer in the Leschenault Estuary during their moulting period, as they are unable to fly. The estuary is a vital stronghold for the species over long hot summers when regional wetlands, billabongs, creeks and rivers are increasingly dry. We must act now to ensure there is a future for this majestic creature.”

Other works in this solo exhibition document Sue’s years of roaming in the nearby Tuart Forest and along the shorelines of the Indian Ocean, wandering and watching - looking and learning.   

Orchids, birds, bush and beach

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ART AS AN OFFERING
The exhibition is offered as an antidote to this modern world with its anguish and suffering, its horror and loss.  It is dedicated to all that is harmonious and good.  It is about our natural history, the study of nature and its components, how they interact with each other and their environment.  It’s about our interconnectedness with this strange and numinous beauty.
Three Swans is more than an exhibition – it is a meeting point connecting people and art, science and ecology:  a meeting of minds.  It calls to restore the lost sacred balance.

South Western Times, May 9 2024