Stuff from my high school folio

Balcatta, pencil, 1991

The view from the window of our high school art room, looking down on Poincaire St(?), lots of low brick and tile houses. My interest in the idea of endless suburbia has not changed much from this school assignment, when I look at it next to books like Tales from Outer Suburbia and The Lost Thing, it's all the same sort of imagery.

Sand dunes, Hillarys, pencil, 1991 (aged 17)

The landscape near my family home, sandy coastal dunes with low scrub and an encroachment of houses in the distance (it's now all very built up).

Rottnest Trees, pencil, 1990 (aged 16)

A study of trees - probably for another high school assignment - on the island of Rottnest, off the coast of Perth (so named because early Dutch explorers mistook marsupial quokkas living there for giant rats). One of my favourite things to do is drawing trees, still, so haven't changed much on that front either.

I had to do all these sketches for high school and keep a neat and tidy folio, which I later rejected – I hated all that assessment-based cataloguing and note-taking. Ironically, 25 year on,  I'm very particular about keeping sketchbooks with notations! So helpful in keeping larger projects organised. But I never really learned it at school, only when I needed it over a decade later.

Just don't take your helmet off, pastel A2

Playground, oil 20 x 15cm

Big cypress tree and mynas, pastel A2

Lake and hill, Melbourne Botanical Gardens, pastel A2

Girl worried that she doesn't belong, pastel A2

Another drawing from my exhibition at the Illustrationcupboard Gallery in St James' London, which opens shortly (May 11). You can view an online catalogue of works here.

Octopus 2, oil 20 x 15cm

Tourists (eye), pastel, A2

A temple for cows, pastel, A2

Flowering tree at dusk, pastel A2