‘I remember watching a Gagadju man, Felix Lyanuk, painting on bark. It was the mid 80’s in Kakadu and I was astounded how seemingly calm he was as he worked. 

Painting was given the same emotional range as hunting and walking. He was present and committed, but he had a lightness. And he appeared not to be suffering at all, which when I was young was certainly something I used to think was absolutely necessary.

I have always looked to this experience for inspiration, my work has become less about me and more about nature.

 My painting practice has often been interrupted by my work as a landscape designer. 

My work has always been in the natural landscape, nature has always been closely observed and absorbed.

In my paintings I return to the same motifs time and time again; the meeting of sky and sea, grass plains, the horizon, columns of smoke, lightning, rain, huge towering clouds, beams of light and trees dissecting the landscape like a grid.

I render them all in a painterly manner, as best as my facility allows. I am firmly rooted in a painterly tradition, I am aware and in debt to all those before me.’ Peter Miles 2025