This is an auditive landscape of Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve, Maleny. As a contemporary watercolour artist, I seek to capture the sensory essence of place and transcribe birdsong to line. My current body of work is documenting five varied habitats on the Sunshine Coast. Through listening, painting and researching the birds, songs and their environment through plein air sessions and sensory walks, I have built up a vocabulary of signatures for the calls of these birds. The Reserve is an environment where the avian population finds sanctuary amongst the trees, its protection encourages its diversity, however dominance calls. Immersing myself in studio via live feed, I listen...”machine gun call”... Lewin’s honeyeater, followed by repetitions of... “whip-crack...chew, chew”... Eastern Whipbird, quieter chattering of Scrubwrens. These are the dominant species, the species of ‘Least Concern’, but yet their population is declining and a third of all birds have already been affected by environmental concerns. What if we let this complacency go on, ‘no worries mate’? As habitat is cut back continuously, do we consider, imagine the day we lost the bird song?

What do you hear?

Stop and listen…what do you hear? Past the mechanical, jarring, man-made sounds of the fast paced world.

The natural world still calls…but it’s own jarring, noisy flocks of introduced species slowly overtake the natives.

These works, begin to study our native avian group, ‘of least concern’ on the environmental watch list…but yet, their numbers decline.

I listen to their sounds, their calls, some I’m lucky enough to see.

Their plumage dictates the colour palette

Studies of movements inform brush flow and direction

Pencil and masked lines move to the rhythm of their song