Newdegate Brenton See
Newdegate. Salt lake and wildflower country. Wheat and barley country. In May 2018, faced with a row of CBH silos high above his head, Perth artist Brenton See conquered his fear of heights to paint four huge murals which draw inspiration directly from the flora and fauna of the area.
One features a local resident, the Western Bearded Dragon (Pomona minor minor), namesake of the nearby Dragon Rocks Nature Reserve. Another local, the Red-tailed phascogale (Phascogale calura), a rare marsupial found only in the Wheatbelt, features in another. Only 10 cm long, this creature can jump an incredible twenty times its own length.
On the neighbouring panel, Brenton has painted the profile of a Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata), the bird symbol of the Wheatbelt and a regular of the Newdegate area.
The final panel is an emblematic depiction of the region, says Brenton. It features a shape like a drop of water, half-white, half-teal. The white represents the salt lakes; and the teal represents the freshwater lakes and rain. In the background are coloured squares showing how the land appears from above: green for the bushland areas and brown, orange and red for the dirt and rocks.
Photography by Bewley Shaylor, 2015 and film by Peacock Visuals, 2015