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

Trees in a field, pastel, A1

Kate Miller-Heidke in The Rabbits. Picture: Alex Coppel / The Australian

ABC Classic FM will be playing The Rabbits album in full this Saturday the 30th of April (tomorrow), at approximately 10:50am. You can find your local frequency at http://www.abc.net.au/classic/about/frequency-guide/

Sea Butterflies, gouache and coloured pencil 1994

An early SF illustration of mine based on no particular story, partly inspired by a dream. Some may recognise the craft as a forerunner of the big kite that appears in The Red Tree. The work was subsequently used as a cover for Interzone magazine in the UK, after the writer Terry Dowling saw this painting at a small exhibition and wrote a short story about it, 'No Hearts to Be Broken'. This was an interesting reversal, where the illustration inspires a story rather than the other way around.

Scavengers, gouache and coloured pencil, A4 1994

Another of my early non-commissioned SF illustrations which was used for the cover of Aurealis magazine, an Australian SF&F fiction quarterly. The theme I chose here was 'distant future Australia', which I figure is always going to be what you least expect.

The Museum's Ruins, Cover Illustration for Eidolon Magazine, pencil, 1995

One of the many cover illustrations I produced for small press magazines from 1991 - 2000, which had no brief so I could draw or paint whatever I wanted. The format here was very long, so I've split the work into two halves.

 
For Kiwis, I have some prints and a few small paintings from Tales from Outer Suburbia in this group exhibition at the Calder & Lawson Gallery, University of Waikato, New Zealand, from May 16 to July 15. For more information, visit Bird Brain

Lorikeet flocks over North Melbourne, oil 10 x 15cm

Rail yard, oil 20 x 15cm

Rain coming, oil 20 x 15cm

It was YOU!  pastel A2

This and host of other unpublished original works, mainly large pastel drawings and some Grimm sculptures, will be exhibited at The Illustrationcupboard Gallery in London (22 Bury St, St James's) from May 11 to June 11 this year, so do come along and have a look if you are near; more info here.

Tender Morsels (book cover), oil on paper, 2008

A book cover for the novel Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, which takes some inspiration from the Grimm fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. I borrowed a little of the style of Arthur Rackham's classic Grimm illustrations - particularly his way of painting coral-like foliage. This is the last book cover assignment I completed, mainly as a fan of Margo's work given that I signed off from cover work a long time ago. This painting is available as a limited edition print through Books Illustrated, by request (as it is not listed online), and The Illustrationcupboard in London.

The Sky Warden and the Sun (book cover), acrylic and oil on paper, 2002

A cover for the second in 'The Change' trilogy by Sean Williams, possibly the SF author I've illustrated the most in my early freelance days. This YA trilogy is set in a far-future Australia where the past is largely forgotten.