Painting & Wandering: A Creative Guide to

Sky Country

Welcome to Sky Country—where wind speaks, feathers drift, and messengers circle above. This guide helps you connect your Sky Country painting pad with real places across lutruwita / Tasmania, where you can look up, slow down, and feel the movement of story through air.

This is a collection of flight, spirit, and perspective. The sky doesn’t sit still—neither should your art. Let your brush move like a wing. Let the weather guide you. Let stillness and movement work together.

Bring your Sky Country pad, your travel brush, something warm, and a wide-open gaze.

🕊️ 1. Meet the Birds in Your Pad

Each bird holds story and energy—some are rare, some are loud, some move like smoke. Here’s where you might find them (or feel them nearby), no matter which way you're travelling:

• Black Swan (Kaylarunya) – Seen drifting in still waters across the state. Try Tamar Island Wetlands (North), Goulds Lagoon (South), Moulting Lagoon (East), or Lake Burbury (West).

• Wedge-tailed Eagle – Soaring high above alpine plains and forested ridges. Look up around Ben Lomond, kunanyi / Mount Wellington, Freycinet hills, or the Tyndall Range.

• White-bellied Sea Eagle – Sharp-winged and silent. Visit Boobyalla River (North), Bruny Island Channel (South), Maria Island (East), or the mouth of the Pieman River (West).

• Black Cockatoo (Menuggana) – Loud, soulful flyers. Found near Notley Gorge (North), Knocklofty & Ridgeway (South), Douglas-Apsley (East), and Tarkine forest edges (West).

• Forty-spotted Pardalote – Rare and precious. Best seen at Inala (South Bruny Island) or Maria Island (East). You might feel their kin near Tamar Valley bushland (North).

• Kingfisher (Teepookana) – Shy and brilliant. Look along rivers like the Meander (North), North West Bay (South), Hogarth Falls (West), or Break O’Day (East).

• Fairy Wren (Poitenna) – Common but magical. Darting through undergrowth in Trevallyn Reserve (North), Tinderbox & Peter Murrell (South), Swansea scrub (East), and Corinna’s edges (West).

• Pelican – Floating giants. Find them around Tamar Estuary (North), Orielton Lagoon (South), Moulting Lagoon (East), or Macquarie Harbour (West).

☁️ 2. Where to Stop and Soar (Even While Sitting)

These aren’t just birdwatching spots—they’re places to open your pad, breathe deeply, and let the sky come through you.

Sky-gazing Paint Spots:

• Friendly Beaches (East) – Wind, clouds, dunes, and wingbeats.

• Maria Island cliffs (East) – Sit with sea air and eagles.

• Tamar Wetlands (North) – Swans, reeds, and quiet.

• Bruny Island Neck (South) – A view that holds the whole sky.

• Lake Burbury foreshore (West) – Mist, mountain, and movement.

• kunanyi summit (South) – Sit in the cloud. Paint the vastness.

🎨 3. Tips for Painting the Sky

• Let your brush follow the wind.

• Use soft washes, quick marks, or gentle layers to reflect movement and space.

• You don’t need to “capture” the birds—just respond to them.

• Feather, flight, silence, storm—they all belong here.

🖤❤️💛 4. The Sacred Stop – kunanyi / The Sky Place

Muwinina Country

• High above nipaluna, on the summit of kunanyi, the wind sharpens and the stars feel close enough to speak.
  Under the Southern Cross, the Stingray glides—its dark form best seen at midnight in early March, written in shadow, not light.
  The stars here carry law: the story of the fire brothers, and the ancestral women they saved with their magic.
  In March, honeyeaters return, eagles soar, and falcons nest in the cliffs.
  This place is alive.
  To stand here is to feel the weight of sky Country, and the presence of those who came before.