I completed my Archibald Prize entry today depicting my childhood friend and local Aboriginal elder Theresa Ardler using collected ochre pigments, including the pipeclay gifted to me by the late Laddie Timbery, which I used to paint traditional dots around her eyes. The red is terrestrial, and represents the blood of Ancestral women and Theresa’s experience of blood loss (she has experienced her own death). The gold is visceral and rich like emu fat and expresses the wealth culture holds in the heart, while the black charcoal is cerebral and swirls like nebula or ethereal thoughts. I added a touch of gold oil paint on her gold earring. Initially we had spoken about adding possum pelts leftover from her completed and in-progress budbilli (possum skin cloaks). I used tracing paper to draw shapes and cut some out of the pelt. But when I lay it the soft fur in position, I thought it detracted from the ochre painting. The original shroud was a mother and baby possum from summer 2015, which called to me and Theresa in my studio as she shared her loss of baby Marley Jessie George Ardler. The mother possum stains evoke her cloak and the baby stains eerily become the body of her baby seated on her knee.

Possum Pietà 2024, collected earth pigments, charcoal, gold oil paint, aquarelle, rabbit skin glue, mother and baby possum (summer 2015) on canvas. 98 cm x 115cm.

Darren and I set up my first shroud set at David and Linda’s farm in Nerriga today. A juvenile sooty tern, a magpie lark, a spotted pardalote, a powerful owl and two rats. David said pigs had been digging in the area so hopefully the wire holds the precious bodies in place.