When I said I painted gum trees - acrylic artwork on canvas, 60x152cm

I was reading about gums before I painted this - gums as these great domains, kingdoms of life for insects that used the holes and bark as their little highways, birds nesting in hollows and branches, possums and koalas who lived on the leaves and flowers. Entire cities of creatures traveling up and down these great big trees. Ecosystems of fungus and microorganisms in the earth below. Just the huge body of life that centres around one of these old trees.

And then this morning I read about a big old gum being cut down on someone’s nature strip by council because of dropping branches. Humans make me sad.