Metropolitan Menagerie

Metropolitan Menagerie explores the context of urbanisation and its impact on both native and non-native animals. The watercolour artworks explore the animals and landscapes within the City of Melton locality. Our urban landscape is a menagerie of animals from the smallest of birds to the scaliest of reptiles.  The feistiest of mammals to the most delicate insects, we don’t always need a zoo or a dense vegetative landscape to explore our natural world when it is here in our own backyard.

My work in Metropolitan Menagerie aims to foster a deep connection to our environment. Celebrating our now urban animals for how they have come to live in the urban landscape and challenging the issues that they still face, from invasive species and habitat loss. Working with watercolour has allowed me to connect to the processes used in depicting flora and fauna during the prime of natural history artwork, when photography was not yet widely available. Metropolitan Menagerie explores how this medium contrasts with depicting an urban landscape and animals within it, creating a unique viewing experience.