'Reef Magic' by Uncle Colin Jones

"This painting is called Reef Magic. And when you look at the painting, first of all, on the right hand side, you’ll see the coloured circles with the red, the yellows and the blue – that represents the coral of the Great Barrier Reef.

In the coral area, you see the sand patterns with the water and the blue with the little yellow dots around representing the sand with the sun shining through reflecting back. And in the reef, you have the little jelly fish, so there are three jellyfish in the reef. Then you see the reef crabs – the main structure of the painting is the three reef crabs. And they live around the coral and not too far from where they’re safe as they move round to eat. On the left hand side, there’s some shallow water again with the yellow of the sand reflecting back through and you’ve got two jelly fish in that area.

The big circle in the blue toward the top of the painting and the one down the bottom left hand side; you look at that and you’ll see very well camouflaged are some reef fish camouflaged in their environment.

In the top section, you have the sand along the beach and as the sand flows in to the ocean, as the tides go in and out you’ll see the patterns of the sand flowing and the circles – the life force of the sand. And if you look hard on the left hand side, you’ll see the little hand shape, that’s my great grandson’s hand and he’s not quite two years of age. The hand sign represents that we belong to this land. My little grandson is of course Aboriginal so he belongs to this place.

So overall, this painting is showing 'reef magic'; the reef crabs, the jelly fish and the little fish."