Darwin artists passionate about Fogg Dam and wetlands conservation collaborate for exhibition
/Watercolour waterlilies, acrylic paint feral pigs and curiously shaped glazed pottery are among the creations being unveiled in Darwin this week to celebrate a manmade wetland sanctuary.
Fogg Dam was initially built in the 1950s to provide irrigation for the Humpty Doo Rice Project.
The project soon failed yet the wetlands had proved such a sanctuary for nearby wildlife that it was not filled in, with it later turned into a government-managed conservation reserve.
Local artist Alison Worsnop started going to Fogg Dam after she moved to Darwin 20 years ago.
"I never really stopped," she said.
"Its space, atmosphere, peace and teaming with life of the birds, frogs, snakes, gorgeous lotus and waterlilies."
Ms Worsnop started painting Fogg Dam about 12 years ago during art trips with friends, with their focus mostly on the waterlilies and birds.
"I'm one of those people who just has to pick up a pencil and draw."
In recent years Ms Worsnop, who also has a degree in natural science and zoology, has found her artistic licence drawn more towards the feral animals that increasingly inhabit Fogg Dam.
"There's magnificently ugly pigs and lots of baby piglets, water buffalo, and even cattle.
"There's a tension because I know how destructive they are, but as a human I can't help painting domestic animals. They're so likable."
Her other artworks inspired by Fogg Dam include a piece about a fire that ripped through the monsoon forest after a particularly dry season last year.
"My favourite piece was taken from a clear image in my head of me and [my friend] Heather Boulden trying to stamp out a leaf litter fire.
"We were fine but my boots weren't terribly happy about it."
Debuting at Tactile Arts Gallery in Darwin on Friday night, Ms Worsnop's pieces about Fogg Dam will sit alongside about 80 other pieces produced by other local artists inspired by the wetland.
The artworks include oil paintings by Christian Clare Robertson, turtle Dreaming artworks by a traditional owner of the region Graham Kenyon, and textiles and pottery by local craft groups.
The art exhibition is also being held in tandem with the 10th anniversary of the Friends of Fogg Dam, a passionate group of locals that visits the area together.
"It's really quite a stunning exhibition," Ms Boulden, the society's president, told 105.7 ABC Darwin.
"It celebrates this beautiful conservation reserve. Fogg Dam is a relic."
For Ms Worsnop, who curated the exhibition, she hoped that showing works to the public would encourage discussion about conservation and land management.
"It's born from conservation. We love the place and we love all the other Top End wetlands," she said.
"We think they're terribly important, very beautiful and underrated.
"We should heed them being destroyed by inappropriate management, feral animals and weed and climate change."