The Tweed Coast, between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, is a unique environment where the coastal, rural, and suburban environments of the Northern Rivers Region meet.  The area has recently experienced unprecedented population growth along with a boom in new housing development, and this painting is one of a series of works highlighting the competing pressures of this growth on the natural environment.  In this painting, two thirds sky, representing the natural environment dominates, however the lone figure in the Coffee van servicing Casuarina’s early morning workers and commuters heading off to work on the Gold Coast or Brisbane, strikes a lonely figure, evoking vulnerability. Whist the light from his van is inviting, the clouds and shadows have sharp edges.  There is now a building where this coffee van stands, so this painting and the others in the series are documenting the area as it undergoes significant change. On another level this painting continues my exploration of the ‘sublime’ in rural or suburban environments questioning the Romantic notions of the ‘the sublime’, and proposing that ‘sublime’ moments can be experienced in any environment.