Cam Gill: May-June, 2026
Cam Gill is a Melbourne-based artist. Recently he has been making paintings of life in the creek near his house: the algae and the reeds, reflections and ripples. Cam spent a month up at Plumwood in June 2026 as a resident-caretaker. Read Cam’s reflection below and see some of his work below, or head over to Cam’s website or instagram for more info.
My mum took this photo of me down by the creek in the Plumwood Grove, It’s a hard track to get down, steep and slippery, wasn’t sure if we would make it, we shed a few tears after we got down there, it’s a powerful place. (Cam Gill, 2026).
In June of 2026, I was offered a caretaker role at Plumwood Mountain, on the land of the Walbunja peoples, Yuin country.
Living amongst Val Plumwood’s house and gardens, reading about her legacy of activism, sacrifice, generosity and courage to protect the forests and its creatures was a privilege I’m very grateful for.
To live on a mountain for a month felt like an incredibly opportunity, I was eager to get out of the city, to side step the mandatory fast pace needed to make all the ends meet, it felt like I was stealing time.
Life was pretty great up on the mountain, the daylight hours were spent outside, working on the property, wandering around, painting, swimming, staying warm. It is a spectacular and wacky part of the world. The forests are diverse and lively, the lyrebirds are everywhere, practicing repertoires, clicking and clacking around with incredible tail feathers and tiny felt heads, I felt lucky to see them up close, being shy and mischievous.
This photo is of Val’s magical octagonal hand built stone house. If I couldn’t sleep on windy nights in the caretakers cottage, id make a bed in Vals house, and fall asleep like Birubi, out light a light. (Cam Gill, 2026).
Val’s stone home is strong, fun and fluid. It’s full of her books, trinkets, instruments and possessions. I looked forward to dusk when it would get too cold to stay outside, put my paints away, get inside and try warm the house up. The nights had a different feel. Cooking by the fire, hot showers under the stars, screeching on my pops violin with no worry of being overheard, looking at the days paintings and figuring out what meals I could make with the food I had left. I became very reluctant to leave the mountain.
Val’s presence was everywhere, I found myself wondering how she would feel about me being there in her home, the meals I cooked, the weeds I pulled out, the music I listened to, wondering what she cooked, what she listened to, how it would be to live out here with Birubi in this isolated paradise. My internal queries about Val’s complex life and what she would think about me somewhat subsided as I became more comfortable, but she was always on my mind, the more I read of her words, and words others had written about her, the lighter I walked, the less I chased and consumed.
This photo is of a group of my paintings on the ladder in the reading well. It helped me to see them together like that, to see what was working and where they fell short. (Cam Gill, 2026).
The paintings I made felt young. I was fascinated with the sense of space, the view to the horizon line, the sky, the void in between, the sassafras regrowth reaching up to the sky, the trunks, the shapes and silhouettes. As time went on I became more interested in the mountains. From various escarpments, I tried to paint the shapes of the hills, the shadows and lights, the colours shifting, the clouds, their shapes and patterns. I used a lot of purple in my paintings subconsciously, I don’t usually make purple colours, its Val’s favourite apparently, purple suits that place.
The paintings themselves are simple, I struggled to depict this place in a way that felt right to me. Looking back at them now, I think I like the paintings, they have an excitement and curiosity to them, they are honest, no tricks, just a colourful and playful reminder of time spent being outside looking at the mountains rolling out to sea.
This photo is of the view out to Batemans Bay, the shapes and silhouettes and regrowth I was fascinated with, also the mountains and clouds, I like the double exposure and the hyped up colours that randomly happened during the development process, it’s got a bit more purple in it. (Cam Gill, 2026).
This last photo is of a bunch of my paintings in my studio back home, showing the many different results from my time spent painting outside. Any intentions I had for the days painting flew out of my minds eye as soon as paint hit the panel. (Cam Gill, 2026).
Huge thanks to the committee for being so generous and trusting me. Special thanks to Ruby for all the correspondence and the invitation, and to Kate for bringing up some soup and getting the fire going on my first night. It was such a privilege to live on Plumwood Mountain. I hope I helped look after the place in some way.
- Cam
Thanks for visiting Cam! See more of Cam’s work over at his website: https://www.camwillgill.com/ or instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camwillgill/