A liminal space: A metaphorical, physical, emotional, or virtual threshold.

My liminal space is a veranda on the western side of my house deep in the Kanimbla Valley.

For all my travels, near and far, there is a large body of paintings within this collection that have been painted from my veranda. Ever since I built it over twenty years ago, I have been creating pictures on this wonderful vantage point, perched high above the Cox’s River.

During the last year, I was unable to paint for three full months. This period of confinement has been my longest break away from the easel in over fifty years. In my restricting convalescence, I turned to my liminal space. Not for its convenience, nor its comfort and not for its elemental protection; though it was all those things.

My veranda is where I can stand right at the threshold of limitless subject material, with my finger on nature’s pulse. I can feel and explore nuances and subtle changes in its moods, and mine. I can be at the ready when sudden weather changes strike up, in all seasons and at all times of day and in all its varying light. From this 180-degree vantage point, I continually find new subjects that engage and inspire me.

Ode to the Valley is the title of one key painting in this exhibition, but it could equally apply to most of the 23 pictures painted when I stepped over the threshold of this open outdoor studio, this veranda, this liminal space.

Cooper Creek, Windorah, August 2026,  photograph by Neil Stevenson.