I am home

Oil on canvas

108 by 125 cms

I lived overseas for twelve years, and never stopped missing Australia. I started painting in Pakistan, and my first exhibition there was called Karachi via Sydney. I painted flowers that grew both in Pakistan and Australia. I painted the trees and grass and fresh air that I missed so badly. I tried to paint myself back here.

I have barely been back six months, in this country that seems both brand new, as well as like an old friend. On the weekends we travel outside of Melbourne: up into the Dandenongs, down to the Mornington Peninsula and along the Great Ocean Road, encountering the sort of majesty and beauty which I will never take for granted again.

I paint what I see and what I feel: all the colors in the country, all the elements, all the people who call Australia home. I paint her cheerfulness, her playfulness, her generosity. There is also pain and grief in what I paint, lingering scars of a sometimes violent past.

But ultimately, my entry is as big and as bright as possible, because that’s how I feel about my land and her psyche.