"Having spent some time in the North Midlands, in particular around Carnamah, Coorow and Perenjori, I portrayed an inclusive design where it’s subdivided into regions, connecting together through an expansive group of squares. From left to right, we begin with Perenjori then Coorow and finalising with Carnamah. The project begun with the amazing help and collaboration through a series of workshops with the kids from each school.

Each square symbolises its people, traditions, the surrounding nature, the region and its history, making a colourful and welcoming painting, which is exactly what I wanted to display about the North Midlands. Its people are welcoming, inquisitive; one can experience a comforting silence, a vast sky filled with stars and many, many smiles. The colours represent the openness and the need for more openness and inclusion, playing with the past and the present simultaneously.

There’s a poem which I wrote while staying in Carnamah spread within the painting, which it describes with rhythm my perception of the region."